Code Lyoko: Swordswoman of Shadows 1: Shadows of Past
by WindySilver
Summary: Have you ever truly paid attention to the reason why William Dunbar got kicked out from his last school? He put love letters everywhere around the school, yes. But ever thought about this love interest he wrote the letters to? Who was she? And what if there was an alternate universe where William would meet her again - on his first mission on Lyoko? DISCONTINUED; known story told.
1. Prologue

Aelita jumped down. She had activated the key just in time.

"It's okay, William. Come over here!" she shouted. William destroyed the Creeper in front of him and said, "Wait! Just one or two more, okay? This is too cool!"  
Then the recruit ran to destroy to last Creepers. A giant wall appeared between the two Lyoko Warriors.  
"William!" Aelita exclaimed, but it was no use; they had been separated. "No!"  
"Aelita! What's going on? Where are Ulrich, Odd and Yumi?" asked Jeremy who had just arrived at the lab.  
"How would I know? They aren't in the computer lab?" Aelita asked.  
"No," Jeremy answered. A monster appeared on the map of the supercomputer.  
"Hey, Jeremy? There's a very weird-looking creature that just showed up," William said, backing a bit away from the monster that had appeared in front of him. "Looks like some kind of… uh… giant jellyfish?"  
"What?" Jeremy exclaimed. "Aelita, you have to get to William! Hurry, you have to go around the outside!"

Aelita left immediately with Jeremy guiding her to where William was while the new Lyoko Warrior faced off the Scyphozoa.  
"William, get out of there! Hurry up! William, do you hear me?" Jeremy told William.  
"I'm not afraid of some dumb jellyfish!" William noted, raising his sword. It was so heavy that he had to struggle against its weight and momentum in order to keep it under his control.  
"William, just do what I say. I don't know what the Scyphozoa wants with you, but it can't be good!" Jeremy told. The Scyphozoa lifted its tentacles and whacked William's sword away from him. It flew some distance away.  
"Rats!" William said, frustrated that he had just lost his weapon like that. The Scyphozoa came closer and William backed away from it. He had to get his sword back.  
"William, get out of there right now! William, do you read me?" Jeremy said. Aelita was close now, but so was the Scyphozoa. William got to his sword and took it to his hands, checking if it had been damaged.  
"Relax! The Scyphozoa hasn't moved an inch. It must be scared of – whoa!" William said, though his bold words broke off to an exclamation as he saw the Scyphozoa attack him with its tentacles.

Suddenly something bright flew past his face and cut those tentacles right before they got him. The Scyphozoa looked at its severed tentacles and left.  
"William? William, answer me! What's going on?" Jeremy shouted.  
"The Scyphozoa almost got me. But… but something just… cut its tentacles," William said, bewildered by the close shave.  
"That something was my sword," said a female voice, low and calm. William knew immediately that it was not Aelita ( _She doesn't have a sword, right?_ ) so he turned to see the talker. He saw a girl with mint green hair which reached a bit past neck. That girl had a dark turquoise cape, black trousers with dark green belt and black and very dark purple shirt and. She had bright green half-gloves and dark green vambraces. Her blue eyes embodied grief, yet they had anger burning in them. Anger which was kept inside only to be unleashed. Unleashed right at _him_ , William suddenly knew. He couldn't say a thing. _It cannot be her!_ he thought.  
"Aelita?" Jeremy asked.  
"I'm almost there!" Aelita told.  
"There's someone else there. It seems that she just saved William from the Scyphozoa," Jeremy told.  
"What?" Aelita asked.

The girl walked over the room and took her sword from the wall it had stuck into. She then put it into the sheath on her back under the cape.  
"Cass? Is that… is that you? For real?" William managed to ask, not believing his eyes. _It couldn't be her, it just couldn't_ , he thought. The girl walked nearer to him and asked, "Well, what do you think? Is it me for real or not?"  
"Cass… You… you saved me, right?" William asked.  
"Indeed," Cass answered, keeping the calm tone in her voice before she let her anger burst out. "You blasted idiot!"  
"Wh-what?" William asked, surprised by the sudden change.  
"You moron just decided to not give a light on what your experienced comrades tell you on your first mission here, huh? Did you leave your brains on Earth or what?" Cass kept on. "Honestly, what were you thinking?"  
"That… that's not fair," William tried to counter the harsh verbal rampage which, however, had already beaten him.  
"Perhaps, but as you know, or at least should know, I don't appreciate those who don't use their brains. We have them for a reason!" Cass told angrily. William did not even try to defend his pride anymore. He knew that at this point he could not stop the girl from lashing out at him.

Aelita got there and looked at the situation. The girl with mint green hair was yelling at William, who seemed a little bit mortified by the situation. The girl did not seem to be a threat so Aelita approached them carefully but quite normally.

The girl, Cass, finished with her words and turned her back to William and looked at Aelita.  
"Who are you?" Aelita asked her.  
"The name's Cassandra," the girl told bluntly. Aelita stole a look at William. The boy looked saddened by the treatment he had just gotten from the girl.  
"Make a haste, will you? The monsters are attacking the Core of Lyoko!" Jeremy told.  
"Okay. Let's go, William," Aelita said. William nodded and leaned his sword on his shoulder. They left with Cassandra following them.  
"I suppose you don't mind if I lend you guys a hand with this matter," Cassandra said without waiting for any reply.

They got to the elevator. It went past them just when they arrived.  
"The elevator doesn't stop here, so we have to jump on it when it comes," Aelita explained to William.  
"Ok," William answered. He took a look at the place.  
"When I say 'now', we jump. Okay?" Aelita said.  
"Sure," William said. Cassandra's words about him not caring about the words of other Lyoko Warriors bugged him.  
"Now!" Aelita said and all three of them jumped. They landed on the elevator which kept going up.  
"Whoa! So cool!" William said, letting excitement sweep over Cassandra's words.

The elevator stopped and a new passageway opened up.  
"Welcome to the Celestial Dome!" Jeremy told.  
"Celestial Dome?" William asked.  
"X.A.N.A.'s interface is here. We've gotten vital information from there," Aelita explained.  
"X.A.N.A.'s interface?" William repeated, surprised.  
"Sector 5, also known as Carthage, is the home of X.A.N.A.," Cassandra told.  
"I'll materialize Overwing to you, Aelita and William. But Cassandra…" Jeremy begun.  
"I have my own way of transportation. Vert, come over here, will you?" Cassandra cut off, calling out to the distance. A cry of a Manta was heard.  
"Mantas?" Aelita asked.  
"Just one," Jeremy told.  
"It's mine and not going to hurt you," Cassandra explained. The Manta came to their sights and Aelita noted to her surprise that this Manta was green. The Overwing materialized and Aelita hopped on it.  
"Come, William!" she told the rookie Lyoko Warrior. William hopped on the Overwing too and Cassandra jumped on the Manta she had called and sat down.  
"Vert, can you give me a lift to the Core chamber?" she asked. The Manta did not respond but it left to fly next to the Overwing. They dove to the south pole of the sector and flew up to the platform. Aelita pushed they key and the stairs appeared.  
"Do we have to stop some sort of countdown here too?" William asked. The more he saw, the more he actually wanted to know about this virtual world he had gotten into.  
"No, but we do need to use this key to get the stairs up to the chamber," Aelita answered. While she could understand the lack of knowledge William had, his continuous questions were starting to irritate her a lot. Cassandra jumped off the Manta and said, "Thanks Vert. You can go now."

The green Manta went back the way it and its passenger had some from. The three Lyoko Warriors continued to climb up the stairs.  
"Hurry up, the first shield layer won't last for much longer!" Jeremy rushed.  
"We're on our way, Jeremy!" William huffed. The heavy sword was slowing him down, but he did not know where to put it. The two girls were a bit ahead of him and he had to rush quite a lot to keep up. Suddenly his sword fell off his shoulder and got stuck in the ground and refused to get up.  
"You can't be serious," William snapped, trying to lift the sword up. Aelita and Cassandra stopped to see what had happened. Cassandra left herself to crouch after landing on the stair and observed the situation.  
"Oh, great," Aelita said quietly. Cassandra looked at the pink-haired girl and then back to William.  
"Go on. We'll come behind you," she told Aelita and went back to William. Aelita kept going on. Soon she could hear the Creepers moaning and shooting.

William chuffed in frustration. He felt disappointed for his part going so unwell.  
"Let's lift it together," Cassandra told him. William looked at him and saw the neutral mask Cassandra nearly always kept. He could still catch a glimpse of compassion in the expression and decided to not turn down Cassandra's help.  
"One, two, three, now!" Cassandra said, and they tried to pull the sword up. "It's… getting… up…"  
"A little bit more," William noted, seeing that the sword was nearly out of the ground. Then it rose to the air.  
"There!" Cassandra sighed. "Now let's get going or we'll miss the whole party!"  
"Party?" William repeated, not sure if the word was the right one to be used there. He had to leave the matter be and get going behind Cassandra.

Meanwhile Aelita had reached the Creepers and kept destroying them as fast as she could. Then the first shield layer fell apart.  
"The first shield layer is lost! Cassandra, William, hurry up!" Jeremy shouted. "Just where are the others?"  
"We are hurrying up, Jeremy!" William noted. They reached the Core chamber and went to the stairs where the Creepers were.  
"I'm going up! Take care of the Creepers on the lower level with Aelita!" Cassandra told.  
"Okay! Let's get into action!" William said and rushed past Cassandra. Aelita kept throwing the Energy fields and Cassandra unsheathed her sword as she went past her and William. At a certain point the sword suddenly morphed and became wider, more like William's sword. Cassandra sliced the Creepers as she passed them by. William noticed this and could not help but watch awestruck how Cassandra got rid of the Creepers. Then one Creeper hit him.  
"Ah!" he exclaimed and looked at his sparking shoulder.  
"You just lost 20 life points, William. Be careful!" Jeremy notified.  
"Copy that," William said and returned to destroying the monsters. Aelita got hit, too.  
"You be careful too, Aelita. You're running out of life points!" Jeremy told.  
"I know that," Aelita said and readied a new Energy field but got hit and devirtualized.  
"Aelita!" William shouted.  
"She got devirtualized and returned back to the scanner. Keep destroying the Creepers, quickly!" Jeremy commanded. Aelita slumped to the elevator and went to the computer lab.

It took about a minute for William and Cassandra to destroy the last Creepers. When that was done, William climbed up to meet Cassandra.  
"I could swear your sword was way thinner when you saved me from that Scyphozoa thing," he noted.  
"It actually was," Cassandra told and let her sword morph back into its thinner self. "I can alter it in any way I want to. While I normally prefer it as a sabre, sometimes I just need some other sword to be used. Like just now, I turned it into a Zweihänder to slice the Creepers fast. Sabres aren't ideal for that."  
"I see", William said and took a small glimpse on his sword. "So what sword is my sword?"  
"As of what I can tell right now it's a Zweihänder. Was it just my eyes or is it weighing you down?" Cassandra asked neutrally.  
"It does weigh me down," William admitted. "It's too heavy for one hand."  
"Zweihänder is two-hand sword. Actually, when its name is literally translated from German to English, it mean 'two hands'. Yours is probably a Zweihänder of Schweren Schlag type. Such Zweihänders are heavier than normal ones. You've got a tricky sword to use," Cassandra noted.  
"Could you teach me a trick or two for my sword? I mean, you do excel at swordplay so I thought you could help me at it," William said, though his words became hasty when Cassandra turned to look at him with the previous anger seemingly rising up. He feared he had already crossed the close line when Cassandra gets angry. The girl looked at William's sword shortly and turned to look into his eyes, imperceptibly turning her expression inscrutable.  
"Perhaps. I'm not familiar with Schweren Schlag Zweihänders, but I think I could teach you some basic Zweihänder maneuvers. But not today," Cassandra said, crushing William's sudden glad expression quickly. "Get back home and let me think about it."

William felt disappointed. Cassandra did not seem to care about him very much anymore. Some part of him thought that the girl did not even want to see him anymore. He looked at the receding back of the girl he had once learned to know. That girl seemed to be gone.  
"Materialize William!" Jeremy executed. William looked at himself turning into pixels and after a short flash of black and red he found himself leaning to his scanner. Odd exhaustion ran through him again, just like last night when he had been scanned. Meanwhile Jeremy and Aelita were calling the others to withdraw the call-out.  
"Ulrich, the Core of Lyoko has been saved. You and Odd don't need to come here anymore. But we'll have meeting at the lab this evening, okay?" Jeremy called Ulrich.  
"Okay, I'll be right there," Ulrich said, rising from the chair and going to the door.  
"But-" Jeremy begun but Ulrich hung up already.  
"I'm not finished speaking to you!" Ulrich's father yelled.  
"Well I finished listening," Ulrich said and closed the door behind him, leaving his father all alone in the principal's office.  
"Yumi, everything's fine now. We managed to pull off the mission," Aelita told Yumi on the phone the same time.  
"Oh, good. That's a relief," Yumi said, exhaling.  
"Let's meet at the factory in the evening," Aelita told.  
"Okay," Yumi said. Aelita hung up and Yumi left to return to her room.  
"Where are you going? Weren't you leaving?" Hiroki asked.  
"Aelita managed to take care of it for me since you didn't let me do it myself," Yumi said, letting her anger to be slightly heard.  
"Odd, where are you? Are you not at the factory?" Ulrich called Odd.  
"Why should I be there? I'm in the finals!" Odd noted.  
"Didn't Sam tell you?" Ulrich asked.  
"Tell me what?" Odd asked.  
"Tell you to go you-know-where. X.A.N.A. attacked the Core of Lyoko but others managed to stop it," Ulrich told.  
"Oh, I see," Odd said and hung up. Samantha finished her course.  
"I'd like to see you top that!" Samantha told Odd.  
"Sam, why didn't you give Ulrich's message to me? It was really important!" Odd asked.  
"Important? Oh…I'm sorry, I just…I just really wanted you to stay. We're so lucky to be together again, even if for day, and I'm leaving tonight," Samantha told.  
"I know how you feel Sam, but…there was something I had to do," Odd told.  
"Even more important than hanging out with me?" Samantha asked.  
"Unfortunately yes," Odd answered. "But I already missed it."

Jim whistled and announced the next contestant, Odd. Odd went to make his last course, saddened by how things had turned out. Samantha was sad, too, as she saw how disappointed Odd was about this. Ulrich came just in time to see the situation. He did not need to ask what had happened, so he just sat down and watched as Odd skateboarded without the joy from the previous rounds. Samantha did not sit down. She just watched Odd doing his greatest tricks. It was over quite soon and Odd went to sit next to Ulrich to wait for the results of the contest.  
"We'll have a meeting in the evening," Ulrich told.  
"Okay," Odd answered.  
"Hey, listen, I'm sorry I didn't tell you," Samantha said but Odd turned his head away from the girl. He could not believe that Samantha had neglected to tell such an important message. Samantha looked at Ulrich who silently made clear that he was going to stay out of the situation.  
"And now the results of the contest!" Jim shouted and the chatting crowd quieted. "The winner of this skateboarding contest is Samantha Knight!"  
The crowd cheered.  
"Congratulations," Odd said emotionlessly.  
"Thanks," Samantha said quietly. The victory did not seem so great anymore, not with her in decently bad terms with Odd now. Jim told her to come and get the trophy.

In the evening the Lyoko Warriors gathered to the lab.  
"So why did you call us here?" Yumi asked.  
"First of all, we found Franz Hopper, but we can't materialize him. He's out of our reach," Jeremy told.  
"Is there anything we can do?" Ulrich asked.  
"For the time being, no," Aelita told.  
"Is there anything else you want to tell us?" Odd asked.  
"Yes, there is," Jeremy answered and moved his chair to show the supercomputer's screen and Cassandra's communication window.  
"What?" Ulrich exclaimed.  
"Who are you?" Odd asked.  
"The name's Cassandra," Cassandra told coldly.  
"When did you show up?" Yumi asked.  
"Today. She saved me from a weird jellyfish on Lyoko," William told.  
"The Scyphozoa," Aelita said.  
"The Scyphozoa showed up to you?" Ulrich asked William.  
"Yeah. I had been separated from Aelita at that point," William told.  
"Okay. But why are you on Lyoko?" Yumi asked Cassandra.  
"I'm here on Lyoko because I can't get out from here," Cassandra answered with a nasty tone.  
"She refused to let me materialize her," Jeremy told and turned look at William. "But William, I've understood that you and Cassandra have some common history. Am I correct?"  
"You are. We were in the same class in my previous school," William answered.  
"Well I'm not attending it anymore either. Lucky you, you can still study and I'm stuck here," Cassandra said bitterly. "I guess this still beats being with my parents."  
"What happened?" William asked.  
"We can say that my parents found out about how, ah, close we were and decided to take me back even though you had already been expelled," Cassandra said, letting irony flow through her whole essence. "After that X.A.N.A. came, helped me to get away and took me as the general of his army."  
"You work for X.A.N.A.?!" Ulrich exclaimed.  
"Excuse me, but would I have saved William earlier today if I worked for X.A.N.A.?" Cassandra asked. "Use your brain, you have them for a reason!"  
"Then why did you say that…" Ulrich begun.  
"X.A.N.A. took me to his army and I took everything I could get from its training and then left to the neutral shadows until today. Now I'm an official Lyoko Warrior," Cassandra told.  
"What's your history, then?" Aelita asked.  
"Well, it's complicated," William said and looked at Cassandra, unsure about how much the girl wanted to tell. Cassandra let her gaze meet his and asked, "How much do you want to tell?"  
"It doesn't matter to me," William answered.  
"Well, X.A.N.A. already approached me earlier today and threatened to give some twisted false memories of mine to you guys if I wouldn't return to the shadows," Cassandra told and looked at the other Lyoko Warriors. "How much do you want to know? Synopsis, shortened version or the full story?"  
"Why not the full story?" Jeremy asked.  
"We'll have to divide it for many days," William noted and Cassandra nodded.  
"I think it's okay," Yumi noted.  
"Agreed," Aelita said.  
"It would be interesting to hear about your past," Odd said, glancing at both Cassandra and William.  
"Sure, why not? At least there would be something more than just the fight against X.A.N.A. here then," Ulrich noted.  
"Shall we begin right now?" Cassandra asked William.  
"Where should we start?" William asked.  
"I think it would be the best to begin from when you first came to Riverain," Cassandra suggested.

William nodded. "Yes, that's a good idea. Let's see, the day when I came to Riverain…"

 **/Code Lyoko (c) Moonscoop, Cassandra Delorien, Riverain and the rest of its original characters (c) Me/**


	2. Chapter 1: A New Student at Riverain

William walked through the gate of the boarding school. The sign on the gate said: _Riverain_. It meant riverside in French, William knew. This would be his school from now on until he would get kicked out from it. He had made no promises to his parents about breaking rules, but he decided to give a chance to this place. Maybe he would like it here, he mused.

A man came to him.  
"Ah, you must be William Dunbar," he said.  
"I am," William answered.  
"I am Vincent Leblanc, the student counselor here. Follow me, I'll show you your room," Vincent told.  
"Okay, thanks," William said. He followed Vincent to the dorms and they found his room quickly.  
"Here's the key to your room. The students must not be in their rooms during the course of the school day, but they may fetch anything they might have forgotten there during the breaks. The breakfast is at 7.00 and the dinner is at 19.30. I assume you have received the rules before you came here," Vincent told.  
"Yes, I got them." William said and walked further into his room. It was rather small, but he knew that he would fit into it. _At least at first_ , he thought with a small grin.  
"You have your schedule, right?" Vincent asked. William turned to him and nodded.  
"Good. You'll join your class after the lunch break," Vincent told.  
"Understood," William said.  
"I'll leave you to arrange your things. If there ever is something you need to talk about, you can come and talk with me. My office is downstairs," Vincent told and left. William closed the door of his room, put his travelling bag to the bed and sat down. On the first glimpse of it, Riverain seemed to be all right. Vincent was friendly and the structure of the whole place was quite systematic. It would be easy to learn how to get around. But he did not know anyone on his class, year 8. Yet.

After sorting the most important things out from his bag, he took his shoulder bag and left outside. He checked out his schedule and decided to already go to look for the classroom he would have the next lesson, chemistry, in. But before he entered the school building, his attention was drawn to a lonely girl sitting on a bench, reading something. The girl had mint green hair which reached to her neck. William decided to give it a try and went to talk with her.  
"Hi! Who are you?" he asked. The girl looked up from the book and looked at him with her bright blue eyes. Her gaze pierced into his eyes in a rather leery way.  
"You're new here," she noted.  
"Yeah. I'm William," William introduced himself.  
"We won't be friends," the girl said coldly, put her book – which seemed to be about swords, as William briefly saw it – to her bag and left without saying anything else. William felt offended by her behavior, unable to see why the girl had behaved like that towards him. The school bell rang and returned him back the reality: he had to find the chemistry classroom. William adjusted his shoulder bag on his shoulder and joined the student crowd which accumulated on the corridors.

It did take some time, but William managed to find the right classroom after asking a passerby the direction.  
"Ah, there you are. Did it take some time to find it here?" asked the chemistry teacher, miss Kirou.  
"Yeah," William answered.  
"Okay class, so this is your new class mate, William Dunbar. Mathieu, you're the class representative in your class, so you're in charge of showing William the places," miss Kirou said.  
"Sure. William, you can come here and sit with me," said a boy with short brown hair. William nodded and started to walk to the desk the boy had pointed at and then he suddenly saw a familiar face.

It was the girl from the bench. In her expressionless her face showed a little bit of disbelief. But that disbelief turned into a clearer expression which took over the girl's eyes: distaste.

William turned his gaze to the class representative, Mathieu. The boy seemed nice and trusty. It seemed to be no miracle that he had been chosen to his position.  
"So, do you like video games?" was the first thing Mathieu asked William immediately after he had sat down. William was about to answer but miss Kirou said, "Mathieu, may I remind you that we're on a chemistry class, not on a break. Save chit-chat for breaks." Mathieu shrugged and turned to look at William with a big grin.

Miss Kirou finished the class before the bell rang and most of the students of the class gathered near William and they had a big group which chatted a lot. William was asked many questions and while it was a little bit awkward, William did not mind answering them. He was starting to think that he would get friends here without trying to be one of the "popular rebels". That had not turned out well and he had just gotten expelled from school. But then William noticed that there was one student who did not join the conversation. It was still the same mint-green-haired girl. She just sat at a bench all alone and read a book about swords. Particularly Zweihänder swords, William noticed. He lacked knowledge about swords, but he reminisced that some characters in the video games he had played used some sort of Zweihänder-like swords. Or that's what some people had been talking...

The bell then rang and students took their bags and left the classroom. William hanged out with Mathieu and his friends, most of them from their class.  
"So why did you get kicked out from your last school?" asked a blonde boy, named Allen.  
"I broke minor rules a lot," William answered.  
"Why?" asked someone else. William shrugged; he did not really want to tell the reason to them. It would make him look a wuss, so he was thinking.  
"It was fun," he then noted. Many students exchanged amused glances.  
"Don't do that here. This place ain't so horrible that it would be worth of getting kicked out of here," said a tall boy. He was bald and looked like he was on year 9 or maybe even 10.

William kept up with their conversation and looked around himself. Suddenly he noticed the same girl again, sitting on the same bench, reading the same book.  
"Listen, Mathieu, who is that girl with mint green hair on that bench?" William asked and nodded at the girl. Mathieu looked at the direction William had nodded to.  
"Oh, that's Cassandra. She's a loner," he answered.  
"Is she always alone?" William asked.  
"Yes, unless the teacher tells her to get a pair or go to a group at some tasks during lessons. She seems to hate it," Mathieu answered and gave an adoring look at her. "She's beautiful..."

William looked at Cassandra, not understanding how Mathieu could like the girl. He decided to let it be. Maybe he would feel just like Mathieu if he had not gotten an unfriendly treatment from her as the first impression.

Then the bell rang. William checked the schedule; his class would have Italian now. He moved along the group and tried to memorize the way.  
"Oh dear, I hate Italian. I just hate it," Allen snorted.  
"I like it. It's a romantic language," William noted.  
"I prefer French on that," said another boy of their class, Manuel.  
"Yeah, but if you want to get Cassandra's liking, languages is not what you should use," Mathieu noted. "Languages don't interest her at all."  
"What does, then?" William asked. Mathieu gave a curious look at him before answering, "Nobody knows. She never talks about things she likes. In fact, she doesn't usually even _say_ anything to anyone."

William started to realize what made at least Mathieu like Cassandra: the girl was elusive. It did attract some people, William knew from his own experience. Nevertheless, Cassandra's coldness had turned him away from the girl already.  
"Will you hurry up, boys? We should start the class! You'll be having a test in a few weeks, so we have to hurry up with all this!" shouted the teacher, mister Léger. William started to speed up his pace.  
"No worries, mister Léger just tried to get our pace faster. We'll have Italian test in four months, so no need to take fright," Mathieu told. William slowed down.  
"Oh, good," he said, relieved by that fact.  
"So you don't like tests, either?" Allen asked.  
"Do you know someone who does?" William asked and laughed shortly.  
"Someone on the internet once said that they like tests but I think they were just a troll," Allen answered and snorted. "Seeing all that stuff there can be fun, but most of the time I find it rather disappointing on the state of humanity."

They reached the classroom and the students took their places. William tried to find a place to sit at but the only one he saw was next to Cassandra. He noticed the girl look if there were any other places than the one at her desk but from the expression that came to the girl's face it seemed that there was none.  
"William, you can sit next to Cassandra. Go on, she won't bite you," mister Léger told.  
"You think," Manuel whispered to the girl next to him who snickered. William nodded to the teacher and walked to the desk. Cassandra took her bag from the previously free seat and put it next to her chair. The girl seemed very unsatisfied with the situation. William sat next to her and tried to ignore the silent hostility of the girl.

The chatter silenced and the teacher begun their lesson. They were supposed to have a conversation with the student sitting at the same desk in Italian. Cassandra, who had not done these conversations since no one sat next to her, seemed to be even unhappier as she crossed her arms and turned her head to William. They started to have a short and basic conversation with each other. While it went well, the girl's glare made William feel uncomfortable. What did the girl have against him, anyway?

The school bell suddenly rang in the middle of the class. Everyone looked around themselves, confused. Mister Léger checked his clock twice to see if it was malfunctioning.  
"It seems that there's an issue with the bell. Let's continue. Open your books on page 10, please," he then told. William and Cassandra were both relieved to be able to shut up, turn their heads away from each other and start looking at the book.

The school bell did not ring when it should have rang, so mister Léger made sure the class ended when it was supposed to end.  
"Did Cassandra bite you? I didn't see!" Mathieu asked.  
"No, but I think it was close. It seems that she hates me already," William told. Mathieu snickered and put his hand on William's shoulder in a companionable way.  
"Way to go with that. Have fun sitting next to her during all the Italian lessons all this year!" he said.  
"Thanks. I think I'll need it," William said.  
"Cool. But hey, maths is the last. Do you want to have match in Galactic Battle after it?" Mathieu asked.  
"Sure, why not?" William answered.  
"Great! But beware, I'll beat you harder than anyone ever has beaten you!" Mathieu said. A friendly rivalry was about to start.  
"We'll see about that!" William told, giving a laugh.

The students had to go to the classes on their own since the bell did not ring. Even with the issues with Cassandra included this felt like the best school day in a long time for William.

It seemed that he had found a good school to attend.

 **/Code Lyoko (c) Moonscoop, Cassandra Delorien, Riverain and the rest of its original characters (c) Me/**


	3. Chapter 2: Uncertainty

"So how did you end up into good terms?" Odd asked.  
"Long story," both Cassandra and William answered.  
"A story you'll have to continue later. We need to go, it's late already," Yumi said.

William looked at Cassandra. The girl stayed expressionless. They had known each other for relatively long, but it was still impossible to him to decipher Cassandra's expressions – or more likely the lack of them. The girl hid everything from those she did not trust, meaning every single being she ever met. It took a lot for her to trust anyone.

No one protested; especially in these times the Lyoko Warriors had to keep a profile as low as possible. Many teachers had become suspicious of them as their absences at classes had increased. That was why William had been recruited. Cassandra's window disappeared from the supercomputer's screen, ultimately ending the meeting.

The group left the factory.  
"So you actually were friends?" Ulrich asked William.  
"Yes," William answered.  
"No offense, pal, but the way you interrupted each other from time to time made me think otherwise," Odd remarked.  
"I'm afraid something has been undone during the time of our separation," William admitted. "Cass is not exactly the person who holds onto friendships that easily or willingly."  
"Why is that?" Yumi asked.  
"It's... kinda part of who she is," William said. "She's a very complex person. No one actually has any idea about what's going on in her head. "

At this point William admitted to himself that he may not have been completely truthful on that. He had had a feeling that he knew something when he had become close to Cassandra... But now, once again, he had almost no idea about Cassandra's thoughts. He had only seen the open irritation. The irritation that had been the first – and only – thing the girl had ever shown him for a good while. It had taken a lot to see it change. But to have it reverse back to what it was? Had it been in just a fleeting moment, or had it slowly ebbed during the last months?

William had no idea.

 _On the next day_

"You know, Cassandra should be materialized," Aelita noted to Jeremy at the breakfast. "She has been stuck there for long already."  
"She said very clearly that she wants to stay on Lyoko," Jeremy reminded.  
"Then why is she bitter about being stuck there and getting behind in her studies?" Ulrich wondered. "She could get out from there and continue her life."

Ulrich looked at William who sat right in front of him, waiting for an explanation from the only Lyoko Warrior who actually knew _something_ about the girl. But what could William tell them? He decided to try to make a theory.  
"I guess things have complicated so much that she prefers to stay on Lyoko for now. Things seem to be fairly simple for her there," he guessed, shrugging.  
"I thought that you knew each other," Ulrich said with a challenging taunt.  
"I think we did. But like I said yesterday, she is a very complex person," William replied. "I feel like I don't know her anymore..."  
"Well can she be trusted? We know nearly nothing about her, or more importantly, her intentions," Yumi said. It had been difficult to her to agree to trust _William_ this much, but what about Cassandra, whom she did not know at all? She had to be skeptical about her.  
"I don't believe she would've saved William yesterday if she worked for X.A.N.A.," Odd said.  
"It could be a trick, maybe part of a bigger plan. She could be an agent sent by X.A.N.A.." Yumi said.  
"Hey, I don't believe she'd do that," William said, frowning. "If I can say anything about her, it's that backstabbing like that is not what she'd ever do." _Not to me._

The others exchanged glances. They could trust William's judgement on Cassandra or be wary.  
"She does not want to return back to Earth. Let's respect that. If she is X.A.N.A.'s agent, we find out about it. But let's believe she is one of us, ok?" Jeremy said.

No one disagreed. Changing the subject, William started to ask more questions. He wanted to know more about Lyoko and what had happened before he had joined the fight.

Jeremy's laptop beeped.  
"Another X.A.N.A. attack?" Aelita asked. Jeremy opened up his laptop.  
"No, it's Cassandra," Jeremy said. "What is it?"  
"I suppose William is with you. I need to talk with him." the girl replied.  
"Ok," Jeremy said and turned the laptop to face William.  
"What is it, Cass?" William asked.  
"You asked yesterday if I could teach you some basic tricks with your sword. I gave it a thought," Cassandra said, but she did not continue.  
"And?" William inquired. He had learned to know this habit of Cassandra's; when she was telling something, she did not tell everything. The person she was telling it to had to ask her to continue in any way. That way she knew the person she was talking to was interested.  
"I decided that I have nothing better to do. So you name the time then", Cassandra said with the expressionless mask on her face just like always. "Just make sure it's not too late in the night. Even I have to sleep."  
"Sure," William said, surprised about hearing this. He had not expected Cassandra to agree to teach him after yesterday. "I will think about the time then."  
"After school would be good. I will be working at the lab then, so I can monitor Lyoko while you are there," Jeremy told.  
"Works for me," William replied.  
"It's settled then. I'll see you at the Arena after school," Cassandra's window closed after that, leaving William no time to say anything else.

Jeremy took the laptop back. William could not help feeling happy to see Cassandra not reject him the way Yumi obviously had.

 **/Code Lyoko (c) Moonscoop, Cassandra Delorien, Riverain and the rest of its original characters (c) Me/**


	4. Chapter 3: Grumpy (cat) teacher

**/Author's note: The chapter's name is actually** ** _Grumpy_** ** _cat_** ** _teacher_** **but since the title didn't allow strikethrough, I put it in brackets./**

William felt more eager to finish the school day than he usually did. He understood that refilling the rift between him and Cassandra would not happen in one day, not even in one month. He could only hope that one year would be enough. That had been what it had taken to become a friend of hers, even though it had been very hard.

 _"Who do you think you are? Some sort of a popstar? Leave me alone, I don't want to hang out with you!"_

At least Cassandra had not yelled that or anything like it at him on Lyoko yet. It was a good sign. William was hopeful about that there may be some sort of a base from which to go on with Cassandra after all. But being the complex and secretive human the girl was, William knew he could be entirely wrong.

 _After the last lesson_

Jeremy had sent a text message to William earlier; the younger boy had one lesson less than William did, so he could go to the factory first and let William come there on his own. At least he already knew his way to the factory inside the sewers already, even when he did not know his way around those sewers otherwise. _Yet, at least._

The supercomputer felt unreal even now. It was like a dream or a movie he was acting in. _Maybe this actually is a movie. But I don't see any cameras_ , William mused as he walked into the lab, looking around the walls. _Well, except for that security camera there._  
"William. Are you ready to go to Lyoko now?" Jeremy asked.  
"Yeah," William answered. Cassandra's window was not on the screen.  
"Then head to the scanners," Jeremy told.  
"Ok." William returned to the elevator and went down to the lower floor. Then he walked to the scanner. Now he heard Jeremy's voice, "Transfer William. Scanner William. Virtualization."

After the yellow of the scanner he found himself hovering in a blue place; it was the Arena. He dropped down on his feet, yet he did not see Cassandra.

A hand took his arm and adjusted it and the position of his sword.  
"Now it should be easier to carry," Cassandra's voice said, now next to him. The sword was between them, so William did not see her face.

Cassandra's hand lingered on his arm. But then the walls stopped and the corridor opened up.  
"You have two minutes to use the key," Jeremy told.  
"Let's go," Cassandra said and started to run to the corridor. William followed her. This time the room looked like a maze.  
"I found the key! It's on the other side of the room," Jeremy said.  
"Any info on how to get there?" William asked.  
"Turn left and you'll get there," Jeremy informed. "Hurry! The room isn't big!"  
"Come on," Cassandra said and went on. Remembering yesterday, William quickly followed.

Then they saw the key.  
"Ten seconds! Hurry up!" Jeremy shouted.

A wall came and blocked them from the key.  
"No!" Cassandra shouted and punched the new wall.  
"Time's up!" Jeremy said.  
"What happens now? Is it game over?" William asked. Cassandra moved to his side.  
"The room will change now, since we failed to use the key. Jeremy, what are your protocols for this scenario?" the girl said.  
"We can abort this and materialize William. You, too, Cassandra," Jeremy answered.  
"What? Abort? Come on, no!" William shouted.  
"That could be for the best," Cassandra said as she looked at the moving walls around her. This was the claustrophobic feeling she had almost forgotten during her time on Lyoko.  
"Is this really that bad?" William asked.  
"This is very dangerous, William. Are you _still_ stupid enough to underestimate X.A.N.A.?" Cassandra snapped. The walls were moving more rabidly. "Jeremy, get William out of here. I am not taking the risk."  
"But Cass, I won't learn anything if I just get away!" William protested.  
"Now you listen to me!" Cassandra yelled and took a strong grip from his shoulders, making sure they faced each other. Cassandra's furious face was closer to his than what was comfortable. "The Scyphozoa tried to get you yesterday. Now we are in a fully hazardous area. I am not risking that it gets you this time if we get separated! We don't know what it wants from you and I am not willing to find out!"

A rumble caused the walls to sway from side to side. There was a way out.  
"Well if you want to 'learn' something, let's get going!" Cassandra murmured and let go of his shoulders, taking hold of his left arm instead.

The walls started to fall on them.  
"Run, run, run!" Cassandra yelled.  
"William, you have to come back! This is too dangerous!" Jeremy yelled.  
"We can get through this!" William shouted back.  
"Who are you to say? You barely even know what's going on!" Cassandra shouted. She dodged a wall, letting go of William. Then she rushed back to him.  
"Go, go, go, go!" she yelled.  
"William! I will materialize you right now!" Jeremy shouted. "William! Do you copy?"

A wall was collapsing on their way out of the chaos. William pushed his sword to support it so that Cassandra could get away. She took a strong grip from his arm and dragged him through with such an amount of force he was not prepared to. The wall collapsed as William got his sword with him. The wall collapsed, but the two Lyoko Warriors were clear.

"William! Cassandra! Do you copy?" Jeremy shouted. "Hey! Answer me!"  
"We're fine, Jeremy. We got away," William answered.  
"No, we are not. We're stuck on a hazardous zone full of X.A.N.A.'s traps," Cassandra snapped. "If there is not a way out, this is not a place for any sort of practice... unless one practices getting into greater deal of trouble than they should!"  
"That is not fair, Cass," William noted.  
"Am I know as a fair person?" Cassandra asked.  
"Well..." William tried to figure out the answer. He did not want to give the answer he had in his mind.  
"I take that as a 'no'," Cassandra said and looked around herself. "Jeremy? Do you see a way out of here?"  
"The way back to the Arena is still open. You can go there," Jeremy informed.  
"Then let's go," Cassandra said, started to walk there and gripped William's arm, earning a "Hey!" as she tugged him harshly with her.

The corridor rumbled.  
"Come on! We must hurry!" Cassandra shouted and her pace changed to running. William hurried with her; after all, as the girl had his arm in a grip stronger than pliers. He could not get his arm free.

The corridor closed up behind them, but they made it to the Arena. It was silent, and nothing moved around them.  
"It quieted down then. We're safe," Cassandra noted. Then she realized that she was keeping her hold and let go of William. The boy wondered why it did not actually hurt even though her hand had held tightly like pincers.  
"Ok, I guess we can stay here," he noted. "No traps... right?"  
"That's true," Cassandra noted. "The first thing you must have gotten right this time here."  
"Cass, why are you like that?" William asked. The vile words hurt him.

Cassandra turned her head to look into his eyes, expressionless aside from faint hostility. She did not say anything.  
"Cass," William said. "Answer me, please."  
"You know the answer," Cassandra muttered. "Sorry."

Somewhere inside William knew that "sorry" was half-hearted at most, but he did not say it aloud. From the solemn tone William understood what was behind the nasty behavior of hers.

It was the same thing as always.

"Now, since we're here, let's begin that lesson. At first, your grip needs a couple of tweaks..." Cassandra begun.

William listened intently and did everything he could to comprehend the things. He knew that as long as he did his best, Cassandra would have less reasons to get frustrated and unkind.

As the hours passed by, William realized one thing: he had made Cassandra realize something. Something that gave her reason to bottle up her frustration and impatience which William had seen never before.

Instead of unleashing them at him, Cassandra made them dissolve inside and in the immediate air surrounding her.

At some point William noticed that Cassandra had closed her eyes.  
"Cass? Is everything ok?" William asked, putting his sword back to his shoulder the way Cassandra had instructed him to; it was easier indeed to carry it, even though the change was small.  
"I just miss the swordplay club. I'm basically stuck here with no one to teach me," Cassandra sighed.  
"But you could return back to Earth," William reminded her.  
"In theory, yes. But can I go back safely, without any trouble with school?" Cassanda asked him. Her voice became quiet as she got to the end of the sentence. It became so low that Jeremy could not make out the words. Then her voice became a whisper, "I don't think I can avoid my parents there."  
"If its X.A.N.A. that worries you, Cassandra, you could come to study here at Kadic. I could make some faked documents for you like I did for Aelita when she was materialized so you could transfer here easily," Jeremy informed.  
"I'd be found anyways," Cassandra muttered, but only William heard it.  
"Cass," he started, but Cassandra snapped, "Do you want to continue with this crash course? We don't have much time left in this afternoon."

The deep insecurity had resurfaced, but just like always, it had abruptly disappeared back under the unkind face.

William knew he had fully bypassed this once. But he had no idea if he could do it again. Or how he could do it.

 **/Code Lyoko (c) Moonscoop, Cassandra Delorien, Riverain and the rest of its original characters (c) Me/**


	5. Chapter 4: Complicated Hearts

At some point Cassandra drove her friend away from Lyoko in very rude fashion; suddenly devirtualizing him with his own sword. William was not sure if it had been something he had said or just that Cassandra could not deal with his training anymore, but he was offended. While part of him wanted to get back to knowing her, part of him was just fully fed up with this girl's behavior. But at least Jeremy was not making any remarks about it even when he returned to the lab. Instead, the computer genius just asked, "Is she seriously like that to even you?"  
"I take it that she doesn't trust me anymore or something. Something must've happened after we were separated in this world. And she just loves pushing others away from her for her reasons," William told.  
"Do you know those reasons?" Jeremy asked out of pure curiosity.

For a moment William pondered how much he could tell Jeremy.  
"I do. And it was not a nice story," he told. "And it took a lot to get it out of Cass anyway. Can't tell anything else to you, sorry."  
Jeremy nodded. "Okay." Then he turned back to the supercomputer and kept on typing something. William moved forward to see what the text was, only to find that he understood nothing of the gibberish on the screen.  
"What are you doing, anyways?" he asked.  
"I've been working on a way to get to the internet via Lyoko. We can fight X.A.N.A. as long as we have Lyoko, but in order to defeat it, we must destroy it. And as X.A.N.A. is in the internet nowadays, that's where we must head to," Jeremy explained.  
"Okay... So, is it difficult?" William asked.  
"Let's just say that I've been working on it ever since the beginning of this school year," Jeremy noted.  
"Wow..."

For the first time he remembered being in the factory, he took a good look at the lab; the previous times he had been too busy to check out the surroundings. But in the end, there was not much to be seen besides the supercomputer itself.  
"You know, if you don't have anything to ask, you can leave. I'll be doing ok here," Jeremy noted.  
"Are you here alone often?" William asked.  
"Yes. I've spent many nights here, working. It's been like this since we began this fight," Jeremy noted. "That was over a year ago, before you came to Kadic."  
"That long ago? How come have you managed to keep this as a secret?" William asked.  
"Return to the Past has been what keeps this hidden when X.A.N.A. attacks go very bad. And we keep a low profile," Jeremy told. "Only now we have found lots of trouble doing this in secret alongside school."  
"Which is why you let me join," William noted.  
"Yes," Jeremy confirmed.

William tried to figure out any other questions, but those concerning being on Lyoko he did not think Jeremy could answer; he had already figured out that the spectacled boy never went on Lyoko.  
"Well, I guess I'll be going. See you later, Jeremy," William said.  
"See you later," Jeremy said, sounding absent-minded; he had been absorbed by his work. William exited the factory, thinking about Cassandra and how the girl had reverted back to her old self.

 _Or had she?_

Suddenly the questions crossed William's mind. Had Cassandra really become the same as she was before they learned to know each other?

 _No, she has not. The old Cassandra would have never let me come that close. She would have never even thought about teaching me anyways!_

Cassandra Delorien was not who she had been at either point of their relationship. She was something in between, hating and withdrawn, yet caring and close to him. Suddenly William knew that he did not fully know Cassandra anymore. He had to relearn to know her, the new her, and learn to understand the way she acted.

There had to be a meaning behind the sudden devirtualization!

William was at the bridge when he realized that. He wanted to go back to the lab and ask Cass, but he was certain that the girl would not tell him when Jeremy was listening.

 _I will have my chance..._

 _At night_

William snuck past the patrolling Jim to the park and to the sewer. He had seen Jeremy go to his room, which meant that no one was at the factory at this hour. He could go and talk with Cass in privacy.

At the lab he walked to the supercomputer. The screen was lit, and a program was open. It was best left alone, so in order to not mess anything up, William just picked up the microphone and asked, "Cass? Cass, do you hear me? Cass?"

There was only mumbling coming from the girl; she was fast asleep.  
"Cass?" William asked. He was startled by the sudden alarm that went off. Another window opened up on the screen, showing a red pillar and the mark that William had seen on the monsters on Lyoko. He had no idea about what was wrong.  
"Ehh... Cass? Cass, wake up!" William shouted. "Cass?"

Cassandra muttered something as a response, but William was positive that the girl had not woken up. An odd voice came from behind him, and the boy turned to look there. A shadow came at him, and his frightened shout was certain to wake Cassandra up.

At the same time Jeremy had woken up to the alarm of the Superscan and proceeded to call everyone, but he could not reach William. However, Cassandra was already awake when Jeremy contacted her.  
"I hear a shout coming from the lab. Someone was there, but after the shout I haven't heard anything. I'm on my way to the Arena now," she told.  
"William is not answering the phone, but everyone else is coming. Be careful, Cassandra," Jeremy told.  
"Of course," Cassandra said. The window closed up and Jeremy rushed out of his room to meet others in the park.

On Lyoko, Cassandra had reached the Core zone. The countdown was on, and she unsheathed her sword. Creepers moaned somewhere close by, but they and the female warrior were not alone. Someone else was there.

Cassandra took a deep breath, holding her sword up in front of her. Someone was approaching, and the girl peeked around the corner. She saw a black-and-white figure.  
"William, damn you," Cassandra muttered. "What are you doing here anyways?"

She lowered her sword and walked past the corner to the corridor William was approaching. Something was not right. As far as the girl knew, William was no computer whiz who could have virtualized himself on Lyoko. Also Jeremy had only told that William had not answered the phone, nothing about virtualizing him. If Jeremy had not virtualized the boy, then who had?

A Creeper activated the key before the countdown ended, and a Scyphozoa appeared. William did nothing to avoid it. He just stood.

Cassandra's eyes widened when the Scyphozoa took her old friend into its tentacles. The girl hesitated no more. She sprung into a dash, her sword widening. The Creepers roared and started to shoot at her, but she ignored the bolts; they all missed her anyway. She jumped and cut the tentacles, then proceeded to deflect lasers back to the monsters that shot them. William fell to the ground as the Scyphozoa left again.  
"Cassandra! What's going on?" Jeremy's voice shouted.  
"The Scyphozoa got William, but I rescued him – again! No need to worry, but backup would be good," Cassandra informed. "The Creepers are many in their number!"

William groaned as he stood up. Cassandra turned to look at him in relief, starting a sentence of expressing how glad she was to see him ok, but she was interrupted when her blood ran cold. The eyes that looked back at her were not dark; the pupils had been replaced by X.A.N.A.'s marks. A Creeper hit its mark, but Cassandra did not care. All she saw were the eyes that now held the mark of her enemy.  
"Jeremy gimme the backup now William is Xanafied," Cassandra said as fast as she could. William raised his sword and pointed it at her. The girl just stood and stared in horror. The nightmare seemed to recur. Maybe this was just a nightmare too?  
"Cassandra, cavalry is here!" Odd's voice shouted. Cassandra barely heard him.

She could only stare at what she had dreaded yesterday.

 **/Code Lyoko (c) Moonscoop, Cassandra Delorien, Riverain and the rest of its original characters (c) Me/**


	6. Chapter 5: A Battle of Nightmares

The Creepers turned to shoot at the arriving Lyoko Warriors, who went on to attack the monsters, but the two friends, one horrified, one Xanafied, stared at each other. An evil grin was on William's face, and the light of the sector flashed on the blade that the Xanafied boy kept steadily in air with only one hand.  
"William... Is this what X.A.N.A. wants from you? Your power?" Cassandra asked weakly.  
"Cass, what are you doing? Stop staring and fight!" Odd shouted, but the girl did not hear him. She only heard William, whose mouth X.A.N.A. used to tell, "Your replacement. A glorious general."  
"You won't have him," Cassandra told with cold, yet weak voice. The nightmare played in the back of her mind.  
"The tower is what Xanafied William in the first place, not the Scyphozoa! You must deactivate the tower to free him from X.A.N.A.'s clutches! Hurry!" Jeremy shouted. "Cassandra, you must act!"  
"Cassandra!" Ulrich yelled. The others had destroyed the Creepers already, and they were closer to the two now.  
"Go on without me," Cassandra said. "Just go. Leave us."

The others went around them from a distance. When Aelita was going, William turned towards her and ran to attack the girl. With an odd shriek Cassandra, broken from the spell of nightmarish fear, ran between them, her and Ulrich's swords meeting the Xanafied Lyoko Warrior's Zweihänder at the same time.  
"Ruuun!" Cassandra yelled at the others as she pushed against the heavy sword. She and Ulrich stayed to battle while Odd, Aelita and Yumi ran towards the activated tower, guided by Jeremy.  
"Supersprint!" Ulrich shouted, took some distance from William and then circled to his side to attack. William kicked Cassandra away and blocked the boy.

The kick did not hurt Cassandra, so she could have gotten up right away, but inside her psyche she was fighting a different William: a William with dark suit, a William who was the general of X.A.N.A.'s army. A William who was far stronger, far more skillful than the kind, though occasionally foolish and reckless, William she knew. While fighting that image from nightmares, she wanted to see a William similar to the version she dreaded. She wanted to see a William who was at least equally, if not superiorly, strong and skillful as the horrifying dark William, but also still the same, kind, William she knew. She wanted to see William grow into a glorious Lyoko Warrior in that white suit he had gotten during his first virtualization.

The determination broke past the fright. The dreaded dark William kept swinging his Zweihänder at her inside her mind, but in the physical world Cassandra got up, picked her sword up and rejoined Ulrich in combat against the William whom they could stop from turning into X.A.N.A.'s henchman. Being blocked and then retreating for another strike, the two sword-wielding Lyoko Warriors kept fighting a fight in which neither should win against their shared opponent. Their victory would be brought by the others in their own battle by Aelita deactivating the tower.

Trusting that Aelita would not fail, Cassandra allowed herself to be lost in the battle, the nightmare blurring at every strike blocked by William. After each strike the sword felt heavier in her hands, and the clashes became louder. Cassandra realized that in such a combat trance as the one she was in the surroundings became distorted. She only saw her opponent, his deadly blade, and her comrade, his yellow-colored outlines as he sprinted at and away from William.

The nightmare blurred into flashes of Zweihänder in the Desert, nothing else, as the X.A.N.A.-eyed boy kept hitting her physical sword, slowly draining away her body's strength at each hit the swords took.

Meanwhile Aelita, Odd and Yumi were fighting against ten Mantas with a fair amount of success; half of them had been destroyed already. Odd had run out of laser arrows, and in order to do something while waiting for the new arrows, he had decided to jump on a Manta to take control of it.  
"Princess! Get aboard!" he shouted. Aelita threw an Energy field at another Manta, missing it, and checked Odd's position on the Manta.  
"Get down! I can't jump that high!" she shouted back and dodged a laser.  
"Alright, taxi is on its way!" Odd called out. "Woohoo!"

The Manta with the Lyoko Warrior on came closer to the surface of the platform, its comrades trying to shoot Odd off. Aelita jumped on and they kept going.  
"Hurry up, Odd! I don't know how long Ulrich and Cassandra can fight William!" Jeremy said. "And your laser arrows are reloaded now!"  
"Copy that, Einstein! We are on our way!" Odd said. "Laser arrows!"

Two Mantas shrieked as they were destroyed. Aelita jumped off as they passed by the tower and Odd and Yumi destroyed the last three Mantas, one of them after exhausting its usefulness as the cat-suited Lyoko Warrior's ride. Aelita reached the upper level of the tower and applied Code: Lyoko on the interface.  
"Tower deactivated," she sighed. She was tired; it was very late.

William struck Ulrich so hard that the boy's katana broke into pieces and the samurai Lyoko Warrior fell to the ground. Cassandra used William's concentration on Ulrich, but she was easily whacked away by the blade, as William swung it at her; the girl was lucky to not be hit by the sharp edge, but the vast and heavy side of the Zweihänder. William, sure of that Cassandra would not retaliate for a moment, turned back to the dazed Ulrich, ready to devirtualize him.

As Ulrich saw it, that devirtualization never came. As William lifted his sword, he suddenly collapsed to the ground, the sword missing him.  
"Ulrich, Cassandra! The tower has been deactivated!" Jeremy told.  
"Yeah, I can see that. Just in time!" Ulrich noted as he sat up. He looked from William to Cassandra, who was trying to get up after the hard blow she had taken. "Hey, Cassandra! Are you ok?"  
"What hit me anyways?" Cassandra groaned. She shook her head and tried to lift herself up. For a moment her mind had blacked out, erasing the nightmare she had been fighting in her head. She could not stand up and hence settled for just sitting. She looked at the two boys, now remembering what had happened.  
"William's sword whacked you real bad, I guess," Ulrich noted.

The hit still dizzied the green-haired girl, but she nodded anyway. The combat trance had worn out and left nothing in its wake. It had been refreshing, but Cassandra believed that her blanked mind would soon be filled with the same things as it used to be.  
"How's William?" Jeremy asked.  
"Unconscious," Ulrich told. He watched as Cassandra nonchalantly took her sword and inspected it. The countless blows had taken their toll on the blade; it was full of scratches and dents, and Cassandra could see a crack near the handle. The battle had been hard, and the girl's fear had not evaporated. She had somehow conquered the fear once, but she knew that a combat trance could beat it again.

She put her sword into its sheath to wait for repairs. Careful with her balance, the girl got up and walked to William, then sat down next to him. The other Lyoko Warriors returned to the silent room to see how their fellows were doing. William moaned something as he was resuscitating.  
"William? Do you hear me?" Odd asked and carefully poked his friend as he crouched next to him. An unintelligible mutter was the answer he got.  
"Careful, you were just Xanafied," Jeremy told. "Resuscitating is easier on Lyoko, but don't get up too fast."  
"I... can... handle it," William gasped as he lifted himself up. Cassandra supported him carefully, expressionless but serious. The fear had not returned to her blank mind, and therefore she could be nice and caring more easily. She wanted to mask it in her seriousness, but she knew that she cared. Why would she not? William had become the most important person to her, and even though she no longer was sure of the boy's feelings, she now knew that deep under all the hurt, fear and anger she still loved him.  
"Are you ok?" Aelita asked.  
"Yes... No need to... worry," William said. He looked at the hand that had a firm hold on his left shoulder and recognized the green half-glove. He turned his head to look at the pale Cassandra. She did not seem to be angry. Instead, there was worry and caring in her eyes, masked by the serious expressionlessness. She started to unnoticeably take distance as he looked at her, but they both knew he had seen it.  
"So... I was Xanafied or something? What happened?" he asked, turning his head to look at everyone else. He could not help noticing how funny Odd looked, but he was too tired to laugh.  
"X.A.N.A. activated a tower, Xanafied you through it and got you on Lyoko. As far as I understood, a Scyphozoa took you and you were once again rescued by Cass," Odd told.  
"Don't use that name," Cassandra snapped. Her blankness was not so blank anymore. As the irritation came, it brought her fear back, and now she certainly did not dare to hug William in front of everyone.  
"But you did not protest it earlier," Odd noted.  
"When did you use it?" Cassandra frowned.  
"When we arrived. You and William were staring at each other," Odd explained.  
"I must not have heard or noticed," Cassandra said with her usual cold voice. "I had more important things to think about at that moment." William watched how Cassandra reverted from worried and serious to cold and irritable. He placed his hand on hers, hoping to get her attention. Cassandra first looked at his hand, then into his eyes. The mixture of returning feelings washed away the real Cassandra William had seen after going past her shield.

Suddenly William knew why Cassandra had been so unkind towards him.

She was afraid.

"Cass, what are you afraid of?" he asked. The girl's eyes narrowed in irritation of the question. Even though she answered, "Nothing that is here", the way she squeezed his shoulder before letting go was closer to "Everything".

The girl got up and walked away.  
"I'll see you later. Now please excuse me," she said. "And William, tell me when you are willing to have the next lesson on handling that massive sword of yours. You need more visits to Lyoko to prevent Xanafication on Earth."

She was gone before William could say anything. He knew that he needed privacy to talk with Cassandra in peace.

But how could he get that peace?  
"Materialize," Jeremy's voice gave the command. William found himself from the scanner before finishing his thoughts.  
"Time to go back to sleep," Odd said.  
"Yeah," William said. He felt very exhausted, even though he had been alert when he had arrived to the lab.  
"Xanafication really ate your strength, didn't it?" Ulrich asked.  
"Yeah," William admitted.  
"Don't worry, buddy, that happens. And soon you will be immune to Xanafication anyways! Just a little bit more time on Lyoko and you are as immune as we all!" Odd tried to cheer him up.  
"Sure", William just shrugged. He wanted to go to sleep now and think about everything later. Cassandra would wait, he was sure of it.

 **/Code Lyoko (c) Moonscoop, Cassandra Delorien, Riverain and the rest of its original characters (c) Me/**


	7. Chapter 6: The Fight

_Cassandra was alone just like always, reading another book. It seemed that she had taken up reading all the books of the local libraries. She just seemed to be reading all the time, and William did not understand how anyone wanted to be a friend of the unkind bookworm who certainly did not want anyone close to her. Everyone seemed to be a nuisance to her._

 _Mathieu approached her again against the advice on everyone else. He only got harsh words for his effort, and he returned back to his friends, beaten once again.  
"Please, Mathieu, just stop. She is not going to like you," Allen said. "She's gonna hit you someday."  
"She will crack someday, I am sure of it," Mathieu said. "There must be something under that shell of hers!"  
"What if there isn't?" Manuel asked.  
"There must be!" Mathieu insisted. "I am not giving up!"_

 _Many sighed. William just looked at Cassandra; he could not understand what Mathieu saw, but he, too, believed that there was something under the nasty outside. He just could not name what was there._

The others looked at William.  
"Well, I guess you now know what he saw?" Aelita asked.  
"Yeah. There was a whole person hiding under the shell," William noted. "A person I wouldn't have believed to exist there, had I not seen it by myself."  
"What kind of a person is she, then?" Odd asked, curious. William pondered for a moment. How could he describe the real Cass?  
"Someone who needs a friend to count on," he told simply. He needed to tell nothing else.

Cassandra swung her sword and slay the Creepers. The replica of William's sword was heavy, but as she used her feet to keep her balance and changed her posture when needed, she could easily direct the momentum where she wanted.

Doing that was quite easy to her, as she knew what to do, but she could only wonder how she could ever teach it to William. It would be an arduous job, but if it made sure that the Dark William would never become reality, Cassandra was willing to do it.

She never wanted to see that nightmare become a being of flesh, especially when it costed her dearest friend's freedom.

She had to. Everything depended on it.

"X.A.N.A. is attacking again," came the alert in the evening. "Let's meet at the lab!"

Cassandra stood up and rushed out of her tower. She would get to the chamber of the Heart of the Lyoko first. She knew she had the chance to stop the attack on her own before anyone would make it to the factory.

Cassandra acted fast and precisely. She sliced the Creepers when they came close enough for her light one-hand version of a Zweihänder to cut in pieces. She jumped over every hole in the ground which appeared as the flooring devirtualized under her feet. The key was close and the time was abundant for her as she hit the key. The flooring stopped devirtualizing and she continued to the elevator. At the Celestial Dome she called Vert and rode to the Core Chamber. She was there soon.

Five mantas. Two of them plummeted down to shoot at her. Mines came at her faster than the monsters that dropped them.  
"Let's put my creativity to test, then," Cassandra muttered, unsheathed her sword and concentrated on the first image she could make of a sword which would work as an umbrella-like shield. Bombs started to drum the simple shield which could never make any sort of damage. Cassandra said nothing as she made her way up. The shield deflected or at least stopped all the lasers which were shot at her; the girl did not see which one happened. As the other one of the Mantas which had come down cried and blew up, Cassandra knew that her shield was lucky at deflecting.

Then the second Manta blew up too. One was an accident, but two was intentional. Cassandra stopped and looked up. Something was wrong. The other three Mantas kept shooting. Was this just to confuse her or was something else up there?

Turning her shield into the light Zweihänder she liked to use when she needed slice and dice type of action, she kept going carefully. More mines fell down on her, but she simply avoided them or used her sword to block them.

Then she saw a glimpse of _it_. No, _him_.

Her virtual blood running cold, Cassandra stopped. This could not be possible. How could her nightmare incarnate?  
"Hey, you!" she shrieked. The dark being which had taken the form of her closest friend looked down on her. This was the Dark William she had seen in her nightmares. The only step of becoming more real was the _real_ William turning into that.  
"How the heck are you here?" Cassandra yelled as her sword morphed into a sword of five blades. That should be able to hit the dark spectre – it had to be one! It could not be the real William under X.A.N.A.'s possession, she would know if such a drastic change had happened.  
"X.A.N.A. created me and sent me here," the spectre answered.  
"You mean you were virtualized here?"  
"Yes."

Cassandra sighed, then attacked the spectre. It protected itself, but Cassandra's five-bladed sword reached past the spectre's blade, successfully devirtualizing the attacker. The other would have to deal with it on Earth. In the meantime, Cassandra would destroy the Mantas.

On Earth, in the scanner room, the spectre appeared in front of other Lyoko Warriors, keeping William's appearance.  
"What's this? A clone?" the real William asked and walked closer to the spectre, but Ulrich stopped him, saying, "Don't. It's a polymorphic spectre. X.A.N.A.'s doings."  
"A ghost? Please, that's so absurd!" William laughed.  
"You still haven't learned anything about X.A.N.A.'s attacks?" Cassandra snapped via the communication line. "Why am I even trying?"

William looked down, hurt once again. If Cassandra was good at something social, it was hurting other people. He certainly had to do his best to fix that tendency for his own sake.  
"Aelita, Yumi, I'll virtualize you to Sector Five so you can deactivate the active tower and get rid of this spectre!" Jeremy shouted.  
"Okay, Jeremy!" Aelita said as she jumped out of the way of the spectre and to the scanner. Yumi followed her example, then shouted, "Jeremy, now!"  
"Transfer Yumi, transfer Aelita, scanner Yumi, scanner Aelita, virtualize!" Jeremy said.

The two girls landed to the Arena and ran as fast as they could. But Cassandra did not bother going to aid them; she knew that they could do it on their own. And she was right: neither of the girls got even much damage when Aelita got to the tower.

The spectre evaporated.  
"And there, mate, was your first spectre encounter," Odd said to the dazed William who had been thrown at the wall a moment ago.  
"Cool," William muttered. "That hurt, really."  
"Welcome to our life," Ulrich noted.  
"Great," William muttered. "Is it always like this?"  
"Not if there aren't spectres around," Odd said.  
"Or Xanafied people," Aelita noted. "Let's get to the lab and see what Jeremy has to say."

It turned out he had very little to say; he was arguing with Cassandra about her not helping the two girls a moment ago.  
"For the last time, you idiot, I calculated that they would fare on their own, and I was right!" Cassandra yelled. "The end of conversation!" The window closed.  
"Is it normal for her to do that?" Jeremy asked William.  
"Yes, if she feels that her message does not get through," the new Lyoko Warrior answered. "She finds it annoying. And actually for a good reason; she really doesn't talk if she does not have something important to say. I think you should listen to her or at least look like you are listening."

Jeremy sighed.  
"If you think it'll work, I guess it's a good idea to try it," he said, though he did not believe that it could ever work. It was, however, the best choice to be made.

 **/Code Lyoko (c) Moonscoop, Cassandra Delorien, Riverain and the rest of its original characters (c) Me/**


	8. Chapter 7: The Swords

"You know, wouldn't it be good if we knew if William's Lyoko form has anything hidden in its sleeves?" Ulrich asked.  
"I've been thinking about that, but Cassandra has been too busy with training William's sword skills and I haven't bothered to try interrupt them," Jeremy told and looked at William before sipping his soda.  
"Maybe you could ask Cass if there's time for that," William noted. "If you find something that'd help me fight on Lyoko, I bet she'd agree." He still remembered what the girl had been after he had been Xanafied via a tower. The Lyoko-bound girl was afraid of something he did not fathom; was it him?  
"By the way, William, any ideas why Cassandra allows you to call her Cass but no one else?" Odd asked.  
"Because she doesn't want anyone to call her anything else than her name," William answered.  
"But you still get to call her Cass," Odd reminded. _Still_ , William repeated in his mind; the realization had seeped into his mind slowly. Not everything was lost, he realized it even better now.  
"Since she hasn't shown any objections against that, I guess she still... accepts me as a close friend," the black-haired boy guessed. "As far as I know, I'm the only one whom she has allowed to get that far."  
"Does she even think of us others as her friends?" Aelita wondered. William felt awkward about all these questions which he felt like he was bombarded with. Yes, he knew Cassandra better than anyone else, but it was not like he had dove into her psyche and found out everything there.  
"That I can't answer," he said. "You could ask from her, y'know."  
"I don't think she'd give an answer," Aelita said. "Maybe she hasn't thought about it."  
"Maybe," William noted. "Maybe she just has fully occupied herself with teaching me."  
"Isn't she a rather bad teacher? I mean, she is not that nice to even you, out of all people. Has she actually even taught you something?" Yumi asked.  
"Yes, she has taught me quite a lot despite of her unkindness. She knows her stuff well," William said. "She was in a swordplay club in Riverein. And I was too, for some time."  
"Really?" Ulrich asked in surprise. "That'll help you with your sword, doesn't it?"  
"Not really. We used completely different swords and I didn't learn enough to be able to apply my skills to Zweihänder now," William explained. "But Cass's skills at even teaching the stuff are from there, in the end."  
"What was it like?" Ulrich asked.  
"Well, that's when I first saw something different about Cass." William reminisced.

 _"C'mon, William, would you even come to try it?" Mathieu asked once again. "Just once?"_

 _It must have been the eight time he had asked that. And William was out of patience. It was better to give up, it seemed; Mathieu was persistent about everything.  
"Fine, I'll come, this once," he said.  
"Great!" Mathieu smiled. "You're gonna like it for sure!"_

 _William was not as sure as his friend was about it. He believed that swordplay was not his cup of tea. But since Mathieu insisted, he would try it. After that he could always decline and have a proper argument for his decision._

 _In the evening, William followed Mathieu to the school gym where the swordplay club was held. He saw immediately the reason for Mathieu to be there in the first place: Cassandra. The girl was clad in dark turquoise and black clothes, covering her body fully, while other girls' clothes were colored differently from hers, but they all had the same type of clothing; the school had the protective clothing for fencing so that students could participate in the swordplay club safely even if they could not pay for the clothes._

 _"Mister Bouchard, I brought a new person to the club," Mathieu told. The dark-haired man whom William had learned to know on the PE lessons turned to look at the three coming boys, Mathieu, William and Aidan. Aidan, a friend whom William had learned to know via Allen, often came to watch the club's sessions; he was not able to participate himself due to some sort of an inborn trauma. William had chosen not to ask about it, as it seemed to be a rather sensitive topic for the red-haired boy.  
"Mathieu insisted that I'd try this out," William explained and took a look at the people who were there already. He avoided Cassandra's eyes and tried to recognize other people there instead. Few were familiar to him yet, but he could recognize some students.  
"Good to see new students coming to try out things," mister Bouchard said. "We'll go through some basic things then, some of them with you individually when others will do their stuff. You'll be fine here with us."_

 _William nodded.  
"Plus, if you choose to continue, I can beat you and maybe gain Cassandra's favor," Mathieu said.  
"There's nothing honorable, cool whatsoever in beating beginners. Why don't you try pick on someone of your own level or over it?" a girl's voice asked thornily.  
"Well I'll challenge you to a duel, then!" Mathieu said, then turned to look at the talking girl. It was Cassandra; the girl had walked closer to mister Bouchard when the teacher had talked with the boys. "Oh... Cassandra... It's you..."  
"A duel? It's good to see them here. We'll have it at the end of this session, if it's fine by you all," mister Bouchard said cheerily.  
"S-sure," Mathieu said, regretting what he had done, but he did not want to look like a wimp in front of Cassandra's eyes, so he could not draw his challenge back.  
"And don't you dare go easy on me because I'm a girl or because you are infatuated with me," Cassandra said with her eyes squinting with hostility.  
"I-I wasn't even going to!" Mathieu said. Some nearby girls snickered.  
"William, since we will have some pair exercises here, I think you could work with Cassandra. I bet you've got to know her well enough," mister Bouchard noted.  
"Actually... I really don't feel like we've gotten that well along," William said, eyeing the now expressionless Cassandra carefully. "Isn't there anyone who's, like, closer to my level?"  
"Yes, there is, but for a newcomer like you it'll be more beneficial to train with Cassandra. She is our best sword player," mister Bouchard explained it. Behind his back, Cassandra's eyes blinked with unforeseen joy and she straightened herself proudly. This was something William had ever seen before; the girl got top grades from the tests, but she always nonchalantly and uncaringly put it away, as if it meant nothing to her. Now she was fully proud of her achievements for some reason. Mister Bouchard turned to look at Cassandra and asked her, "Is that okay to you?"  
"Sure," Cassandra said, now more neutral. There was a hint of something positive, maybe eagerness, in her demeanor.  
"Then let us begin, it's time," mister Bouchard said. "William will be with us this time, and he'll undergo some of the things with me individually while you do other things."_

 _The session begun and William waited with Aidan that mister Bouchard would get everyone else's exercise started. Cassandra out of all even helped some with it.  
"I've heard a lot about Cassandra's meanness, but to be honest, I've seen her most here, and I don't think she's that bad," Aidan said.  
"Really? I've found her quite nasty during my time here," William said. "It felt like hate on first sight."  
"She's different here," Aidan said. "Just look at her, isn't she different?"_

 _William had already seen the difference, but with the girl taking some time of her own doing to help others and also take mister Bouchard's place as the teacher for the time the teacher taught William the basics, he could not deny the vast difference. He just did not know why she was like that: on both edges of the spectrum._

 _When William could join the others, he was placed next to Cassandra. He was wary of the girl especially since she paid lots of attention to him, but for some reason she was more patient with him and instructed him along his beginner level. She looked happier than ever before during his time._

 _When the pair exercises came and they could discuss with each other, Cassandra talked quite a lot. She talked about swords, how to handle them, their history, different swordplay styles and so on. William could not talk about them much, but he listened to the girl not to annoy her. He spotted a glance of Mathieu, who was certainly very jealous. What he heard was, however, interesting, and he had no problems with listening to Cassandra._

 _As the ending exercise for the full group they had a practice match, which made William even more nervous than he already was; Cassandra was unusually amiable but he doubted it would last.  
"Don't worry, I'll go easy on you," Cassandra reassured him. "I won't beat you up like I'm going to do with Mathieu soon."  
"Okay..." William said and raised his sword – a sabre, Cassandra had told him – to the salute before the match. Cassandra allowed him to begin, and he carefully tried a simple attack he had been taught; it was not his fear of hurting the girl but his own unsureness about his skills that held him back. The girl blocked his pathetic attack with ease and prompted, "Come on, I know you can do better than this. Believe in yourself!"_

 _William took in a breath and attacked again. Cassandra blocked his attack again with the same ease but said, "That's more like it!" She attacked, and it was William's turn to block. The hard impact he braced for never came, as the green-haired girl had scaled her attacks to his level; he hardly felt anything else than the weight of the girl's blade on his.  
"Don't wait, retaliate," she noted before taking her sword away to go from his blocking to attack further. "Or just do something to react to me after blocking, don't stand still!"_

 _William attempted to block the attack that was coming to him from his earlier defense, but he was too slow for the calm attack that came almost peacefully at him. He could feel the touch of the point of the sabre at his shoulder before it left back to the side of its user.  
"Point," Cassandra noted and returned to the en garde position and William followed her example. Then he allowed the girl to attack, and the practice match continued until mister Bouchard ended the exercise with "Halt!" By then, Cassandra already had 12 points, while William had somehow luckily got one point.  
"That was a good match," Cassandra said and mustered a small smile which William could not respond by any other means than nodding, he was that surprised.  
"For the last thing, Cassandra has been challenged by Mathieu to a duel, which was saved for the last. So why don't you two come here," mister Bouchard told. Aidan gestured William to come next to him.  
"This'll be interesting," William noted.  
"Cassandra beats him," Aidan noted. "Mister Bouchard did not exaggerate when he said that she's our best."  
"I bet he didn't," William said. The girl's completely different demeanor was still foreign, but now he wondered if this was what Mathieu had seen in her. The difference._

 _Most of the people cheered for Mathieu, but some of the girls cheered for Cassandra even though she was friends with no one. When William asked them, they told that Mathieu tended to be smug especially when he attempted to get Cassandra interested in him. That was why they chose to cheer for Cassandra; it would be refreshing to have someone kick his butt for once._

 _Just like Aidan had said, Cassandra beat Mathieu, quite easily even! She bowed to her small and cheering audience with glee and happiness shining from her eyes. She enjoyed it, William saw it clearly._

 _The session was over then, and as the girl had received her congratulations, she left for the showers._

 _Later William tried to catch up with her. "Cassandra, wait, please!" The girl stopped and asked mildly, "What is it, William?"  
"I just wanted to thank you for helping me," William said. In the dark which concealed part of the expression and after seeing the happy side of the girl, he felt that it was a bit easier to talk with her.  
"No problem. I hope you'll choose to continue with us," Cassandra said, her tone still quite mild but her eyes could not hide the hint of happiness.  
"I'll think about it," William said. "Swordplay is your passion, isn't it?" The girl smiled again, fondly this time.  
"Yes. Swords, swordplay, all about it. It is my passion, indeed," she said. "And for a beginner, you weren't so bad. Just so you know."_

 _With those words she turned her back on William and disappeared into the darkness._

 _But in the next morning, she was just the same irritable and nasty Cassandra William had to learn to know her as. William did not know if he was imagining it, but she seemed just a tiny bit kinder towards him than before._

 _Yet part of him wondered if the swordplay club had been just a dream._

"Well, was it a dream?" Aelita asked.  
"No. I decided to continue in the club, and the change happened every single time. I think that was where we first started to get closer as she started to accept me slowly through it. And when I expressed some interested in the same topic, it just got better," William told. "Suddenly we were talking about swords as if there was no rift between us." _I just wish it had lasted through the months of our separation..._

 **/Code Lyoko (c) Moonscoop, Cassandra Delorien, Riverain and the rest of its original characters (c) Me/**


	9. Chapter 8: The Powers

When William's next teaching session on Lyoko came, Jeremy was prepared to ask for a chance to figure out William's Lyoko powers. He was surprised when the girl replied, "I was wondering if you'd ever ask. Sure, go ahead. Just don't take too much time away."

Jeremy directed them to the tower so that he could scan William's Lyoko form and find out better what it held. Meanwhile Cassandra kept doing maneuvers with her sword, as if fighting against a foe William could not see. It was odd to look at it, the girl fighting fiercely, if not desperately, against something that only she saw.  
"Cass?" William called her. The girl jumped and turned to look at him, surprised. "You sure were focused on that exercise thing."

The girl looked away from him. There were things she did not want to ever tell him, and the being of nightmares was one of them. She feared it, she wanted to fight it, but how do you fight something that's only in your head or in the changing future one could never predict?

And that nightmare was them both.  
"What's haunting you, Cass?" William asked more quietly, having moved closer to the girl. He faced the girl's blue eyes full of hidden fear they could not hide from him. But even with his hand on the girl's shoulder encouragingly, the girl just said, "It's not your problem." What William did not hear was the girl's silent continuation in her own mind. _Yet_.  
"Can't I help you?" For a moment Cassandra was quiet, then she figured out a way to respond to him, "Just train and become a powerful Lyoko Warrior so that X.A.N.A. won't ever get you and I won't have to worry about you too."

William was going to take his hand away from her shoulder and back away, disappointed, but as Cassandra's own hand stopped his hand from leaving, he decided to ask, "Are you sure you don't want to share it with me? I mean, I could help you." One had to tread carefully when trying to preach further any decision of Cassandra's.  
"No, you can't," Cassandra turned to look at him again. "It's my issue, and there's nothing you can do about it... for now, at least." A small pause in talking as the two Lyoko Warriors looked at each other, measuring the mental distance between each other. "Your wellbeing, no matter what X.A.N.A. is planning for you, is more important than what I fear of."

The memory of Scyphozoa creeped in William's mind. He had not faced that creature in combat since his first time on Lyoko, but Cassandra's almost absurd fear of them had made him anxious about them. Despite all he had heard about the dreaded monster, it did not seem _that_ dangerous to him.

Of course, he was just an amateur who knew nothing of what had come to pass on Lyoko, as Cassandra had put it the first and last time he had made the mistake of saying it aloud in her company. He tried to avoid giving the girl any reasons to say nasty things, but given the oddly shifting balance of hostility, anger, pure frustration, fear that nagged her deep inside and love, it was very difficult to predict what would make the girl send the blades made of words at him. Even more difficult was to trigger the rarely-seen side of the spectrum of feelings of the girl. All the negative had buried the positive, and it was very difficult to dig up the latter. But William had seen from the girl's behavior that part of the positive side was able to surface from time to time on him.

Maybe everything was not lost after all.

"William, I've now figured out your powers," Jeremy informed.  
"Cool! What do I have?" William asked, suddenly excited.  
"You can launch shockwaves from your sword and you seem to have some sort of a levitation skill," Jeremy told.  
"Wow! So much power!" William exclaimed.  
"Brute strength, huh?" Cassandra was more skeptical. "Well, then you need to hone skill and strategy since you have the strength. Those you'll need more."  
"Sure," William said. "Do you know any strategies you could share with me?"  
"If they fit you, then yes," Cassandra said. "But I doubt that."  
"Why?" William asked.  
"My strategies rely on swift movements. I developed them for nimble and light swords, not heavy ones that are more difficult to control," Cassandra crossed her arms. "Just why the heck did you get such a difficult sword?"  
"Maybe to balance out his strength so that it would not be too overkill," Jeremy said.  
"Maybe," Cassandra said. "But it still is difficult to deal with."  
"I guess I just need to practice a lot so that the weight won't hinder me, right?" William said cheerfully.  
"Sure. So let's get back to your practicing, shall we?" Cassandra said.  
"Of course," William said. He did not know if anyone could help him with his Lyoko powers, but at least he could learn to handle his primary weapon.

Some hours later Cassandra decided they had practiced enough for the day. Jeremy materialized William and allowed the two to go on their own ways, the other one on Earth and the other one on the virtual world.

He still did not know why Cassandra wanted to stay on Lyoko and be sour about not being able to continue studying. William had failed to elaborate the possible reasons with the information he felt comfortable to tell them without Cassandra's consent. Apparently it involved something complicated, and none of the Lyoko Warriors had decided to try to find out exactly what.

It was way too difficult to figure out what was going on Cassandra's head for those who did not know her well, and as even William had difficulties with her, they had come to the conclusion that unless the girl herself told them, they would not know.

 **/Code Lyoko (c) Moonscoop, Cassandra Delorien, Riverain and the rest of its original characters (c) Me/**


	10. Chapter 9: The Lost Time

Cassandra stared at the screen. It had been months since she had joined the Lyoko Warriors, yet her nightmares had not stopped. William had grown powerful, more powerful than she had expected him to, even though he still lacked skills at strategy. She was not sure if he could defend himself against the Scyphozoa yet. She had not been able to say that he can at any point, and she suspected that it was because of her own fear. The Scyphozoa was the most dangerous of the monsters in her opinion. It made her feel frightened.

The single thought about it made her heart pound in fear. It was an awful thing to think about.

The Dark William had to never become a reality. She had to make sure it never happened.

 _William was there once again, trying to get through to Cassandra. After many lessons of Italian and many sessions of helping the boy in the swordplay club, the girl hated to admit to herself that the black-haired boy was cracking her shields. He had a kind presence, no matter how much his persistence on getting through to her annoyed her. She was afraid of what she feared she had started to feel; she must not feel so, she must not. She knew how much her parents would hate it, how much they would hurt both her and William if they found out. It was not right._

 _How could she deal with this?_

Cassandra wanted to wait. There would be time when William's skills would be put to a test, but this would not be the right time for that. He was not ready yet, she thought. The right time would be sometime in the future, not now. William still had a lot to learn, she knew. Or at least she wanted to know it that way. She did not want to meet the day when she would have to let go.

William's time would be later. Now they had to deal with the current issue: X.A.N.A.'s continuous attacks and how to handle them with Yumi unable to skip lessons unless it was an emergency that required Return to the Past. The timer which had been set for the Japanese girl every single time whether to get out of the class or to it in the middle of the mission put a lot of pressure to everyone, not just Yumi. It was Jeremy who had to keep an eye on the time when everyone else was on Lyoko because no one else could tell whether it was time to materialize Yumi or not. It was an additional inconvenience which they did not like and which was only stressing them all.

They were lucky that they had not just one but two additional Lyoko Warriors in the group to help them now at these difficult times.

Back in Riverain, Cassandra had acted at some point to get acquainted with the boy more, but now it was completely different. They knew each other now. She did not know if William had fallen for Yumi for good and if the old love, Cass, was now yesterday's news. So much time had been lost after X.A.N.A. had come to free her, and the girl feared that she had lost what she had risked everything for. Her freedom had cost her the only person in her life.

It was not fair. It just was not fair. But Cassandra swallowed her tears once again and continued to live on in the virtual world.

She had to, for she could not return.

Could she ever return?

She did not know. William insisted that she could, but the boy did not know everything about her situation. She could not bear to show him the deepest of her wounds. It would lead to more trouble than good, and she did not want to cause any trouble to the person she loved. No matter if he loved her back anymore or not. _She_ loved _him_ , and only that mattered to her now.

She did not want to hurt him by dragging him any deeper into her personal dilemmas. Her nightmares on Lyoko were enough for that aspect, and they dreaded her enough.

Cassandra knew she had hurt William enough already. Had the nightmares and their threat not been about him, Cassandra knew she would keep him away from being tangled to them. But sadly X.A.N.A. wanted him and only Cassandra among the Lyoko Warriors knew just how serious it was.

An alert. X.A.N.A. attacked the Heart of Lyoko. Cassandra closed the screen reluctantly and got up. She did not want to meet anyone in this mood. Someone touched her shoulder suddenly without any warning, and as Cassandra turned to see who the hell had managed to sneak behind her unnoticed, she screamed.

As other Lyoko Warriors rushed to the Heart of Lyoko, William was the first person to notice that Cassandra was missing. She was supposed to be there, yet she was not. What was wrong this time?

It was not the time for wondering in frustration; William rushed past Odd and Aelita to get to the top and stop the Creepers there. Ulrich was there first, thanks to his Supersprint, but William was not that far behind.

Cassandra was not needed, so most Lyoko Warriors suspected that the girl had calculated so. However, when Jeremy looked for her to say his share on teamwork, he did not find the girl. This worried William; something was wrong, and he did not hesitate to voice it, "I think we should look for her. Something must be wrong if Jeremy can't find her."  
"Do you really think it's necessary?" Ulrich asked. "She isn't very glad about being helped, you know."  
"I know that, but... Something's wrong. Disappearing completely like that now... it doesn't make sense to me," William said. "It's not like she trusts my skills enough to not be scared of Scyphozoas, so it doesn't make sense that she'd just suddenly decide that she's done with this all and disappear so that no one can reach her."  
"William is right. We should at least see the tower if there's something," Aelita said.  
"Go there. I'll open up a shortcut there to the wall behind Odd. It should lead to her tower, if her opening code is right," Jeremy told. "There! Go before it closes- I'll try to pinpoint her last location."

The area around the tower was usual; there were no traces of anything being out of ordinary. Inside the tower there were no marks of anything unusual happening except for one thing: Cassandra's sword lay there. William took it to his hands, trying to find any traces of anything. There were none; only the fact that the sword was there without its owner was a sign of something ominous.  
"Jeremy, Cassandra's sword is here. Any progress there?" Aelita said.  
"Not yet. I've managed to track that she left the tower around the time of the attack, but I haven't finished tracking yet," Jeremy informed.  
"She'd never leave without her sword. Something has happened," William said, looking up from the sword. "Jeremy, can you tell where she went first? We must go after her!"  
"William, don't fret. I'm sure Cass is fine," Odd tried to calm his friend down.  
"I don't think so. As far as I know, her only means of protecting herself is this sword," William said.  
"Go, I doubt she has much time. First, turn left and keep going until I tell you to turn," Jeremy told.

William and Odd did not hesitate to leave and Aelita and Ulrich followed them. William did not know where the sense of urgency came from, but he knew he had to get to Cassandra as fast as possible.  
"Turn right! Her tracks stop to the room at the end of the corridor!" Jeremy told.  
"Copy that, Einstein," Odd said as the foursome turned.

The corridor ended and the Lyoko Warriors found themselves from a small room. Cassandra was on the opposite side of it in fetal position, her hands on her head. She was covered in some black shroud, and she certainly looked terrified when she looked up and saw the Lyoko Warriors. Seeing the group seemed to make her more terrified, as she screamed, "Get outta here! _IT'S A TRAP!_ "

The group looked around themselves to see any possible threat.  
"Didn't you hear me? Get out of here!" Cassandra shouted. "GO!"  
"Why are you there?" Odd shouted.  
"I'm immobilized, I can't move!" Cassandra shouted back.  
"I don't see any threats on the screen," Jeremy noted.  
"Let's go to her together," William said. "It's safest that way."  
"Let's go," Aelita agreed. Careful as they walked, they approached the girl who seemed to have given up shouting at them.

William kneeled next to Cassandra when they got to her.  
"I told you to get out of here!" Cassandra said. "It's a trap, and you're walking right into it!"  
"We're not leaving you behind now that we came this far for you," William snapped. "What happened?"  
"I.. I dunno. I was going to get out of the tower to join you at the Core of Lyoko, but I was attacked from behind... I woke up here, and I couldn't move," Cassandra told frantically. She did not tell about the attacker even though she knew well enough who it had been.  
"We'll carry you away from here, if that's what it takes," Odd said as he settled himself to the girl's other side. "We'll lift you first, maybe that'll break your immobilization." He took hold of Cassandra's arm and William followed suit. "One, two, three, now!"

The combined strength of two boys lifted Cassandra up and the girl suddenly realized she was free of the dark shroud on her. The sudden freedom of movement gave way for trembling in fear as she leant to Odd and William.  
"Thanks guys..." she gasped. Her head now free to turn, she looked around the room. The dark spot she had expected to see was nowhere to be found.

The Dark William's apparition was not there; it had left when the Lyoko Warriors had come. This had been a warning.  
"Can you walk?" Odd asked.  
"Y-yeah... I think I can," Cassandra said and let go of her fellows. Her feet supported her weight, but the fear made walking feel something too difficult.  
"Get back to the tower. It's better that you, Cassandra, don't go there alone," Jeremy told.  
"S-sure... If there's someone willing to escort me there, be my guest," Cassandra said and gave a hesitant smile.  
"I'm willing," William noted. "Oh yeah, Cass, I found your sword. You probably want it back." He handed the saber to the girl who took it with relief.  
"Thanks. Where was it?" she asked.  
"In the tower," Odd told.  
"So it didn't disappear when I was attacked... Good, I feared for the worst," Cassandra said.  
"Well, I was going to meet Yumi after this mission, so I could already leave, if you don't need me here," Ulrich said.  
"I'm sure we can handle it without you," Odd said.  
"Alright then. Materialize Ulrich," upon Jeremy's command the samurai Lyoko Warrior disappeared.  
"Let's go," Aelita said.

They walked through the room again without anything happening. However, as Cassandra took the last look at it before going further into the corridor, she saw _him_ smiling and leaning to a wall there. The evil grin frightened girl and she hurried up into the middle of the small group, close to William. She resisted the will to lean to him to seek some reassurance from his proximity, but William noticed just how close she had dared to come.  
"Are you ok, Cass?" he asked the her.  
"I'm frightened, but still alive and all. So, I guess I could say I'm okay," Cassandra answered timidly.  
"I disagree," Odd said. "If you're frightened, you aren't ok. Are you sure you don't need anyone to talk with?" He earned a glare from the girl. She did not want to talk with anyone, especially not this flirter. She would have liked to talk with someone, but she did not want to tell about the attacker, so it would not help.  
"I could stay with you for some time, actually. I don't have much to do now that the school day is over," William noted. "If that's fine."

Cassandra pondered.  
"If it's fine with others, I won't mind you being here with me," she said.  
"If you can be there without anyone monitoring Lyoko, there's no problem with that," Jeremy said.  
"We'll just stay in the tower, so no need for monitoring," Cassandra noted.

When they reached the tower, two more Lyoko Warriors were materialized and two others jumped to the tower.

 **/Code Lyoko (c) Moonscoop, Cassandra Delorien, Riverain and the rest of its original characters (c) Me/**


	11. Chapter 10: Recall

Cassandra looked at William from behind her book. Mathieu had just left her, denied of friendship again, and now the boy was talking how about jealous he was of William who had not only been able to sit next to her at many lessons but also got a fair lot of attention from the girl at the swordplay club due to the boy's beginner level.

Cassandra wanted to keep her façade of disliking the boy, but she could not avoid admitting to herself that especially at the swordplay club sessions she had grown fond of the black-haired boy. She did not tell herself that they would ever become friends, but she knew that something was happening to her. She was afraid of it, but part of her told to escape the chains of fear.

The question was "how she could ever escape her parents?" That seemed impossible. If she allowed this to continue, she would just get beaten again, probably also dragged away from this good school to study at home. She wanted to avoid it so badly.

What on Earth should she do?

What _could_ she do?

She could escape the chains of fear, but how could she escape those who were behind those chains?

"You were afraid back then," William said, breaking the reminiscence. "And you are afraid now."  
"I know," Cassandra said, standing up and turning her back on the boy. "And I bet I will be afraid in the future too."  
"Well, X.A.N.A. is not going anywhere anytime soon, so you probably have a reason for that in the future."  
 _William, you don't know... You don't know what I am afraid of now..._ Cassandra did not say it aloud. Instead, she said, "Yeah. X.A.N.A. is a threat now and in the future until it's gone forever."  
"I hope we'll get to see that day," William noted.  
"What do you mean by that?" Cassandra turned her head and shoulders to look at the boy, her hands behind her back.  
"Anything could happen. X.A.N.A. could kill us, or we could never stop it. Jeremy and Aelita seem worried about that Franz Hopper, too. We're all at risk," William said. "The risks were made very clear to me when I was invited to join."  
"And yet you chose to join," Cassandra noted.  
"It sounded exciting. And besides, Yumi asked me since they needed help, so I wasn't going to say no either," William said. "And that dream I saw, I think it was a sign that I should be fighting."  
 _Or maybe it was X.A.N.A.'s work. A trap to lure you here_ , Cassandra decided not to bash her friend's source of determination to be there. She stayed silent and pondered.  
"You know, I think this was fate. That we meet again here on Lyoko, when we are both fighting against evil. That I end up on Kadic and find my way here, while you were taken here by X.A.N.A. You, and no one else," William continued.  
"I don't believe in fate," Cassandra remarked, looking away from William. "Makes shit too difficult to deal with. And makes good things too simply got. I prefer affecting on things rather than believing that some weird power will handle everything." She paused to think how to say it without hurting William. "I'd rather think that you got yourself kicked out of Riverain with your own actions instead of that fate decided you to get kicked out."  
"So that you could blame me for it?" William asked, suspicious.  
"No," Cassandra said. "So that I could blame myself for not talking you out of doing it. So that I can think that I could've done something to stop it from happening, even though I did not do anything about it." She turned to look at William again. "So that I can take the blame for being here in this situation and know that I could've done something about it."

William stayed silent, pondering the girl's words. It sounded farfetched and more like the wrong answer, but the boy knew that if Cassandra's words were ever farfetched, they were true. They were on a very personal level now, so William had to keep his mind open. His bias would not help at all.

Cassandra looked away again, willing to avoid the tense air, but when she looked away from William, her mind, despite seeing only the wall of the tower, set itself to think of another version of the boy: the Dark William whose fake copy most likely lurked somewhere out there, capable of striking her at any moment.

There they stayed, silent, one standing, one sitting, both pondering. Their conversation had hit a standstill, incapable of continuing on its own. Cassandra turned to look at William again to dispel the image of the Dark William from her mind. The real, Light, William in his mostly white suit was whom she wanted to remember, not the Dark one with his black suit.

Not seeing use in standing, the girl sat down in front of the boy so that she could look into his eyes, unsure of the reason. Perhaps somewhere under her consciousness Cassandra wanted to burn the image of the real William into her mind over the nightmarish version. She did not know.  
"Cass, you know, we are alone here, we have privacy. What are you afraid of?" William initiated a conversation. Remembering how she had been ambushed, Cassandra looked over her shoulders, partly expecting the object of her fear to appear behind her back, before answering.  
"There's something out there. Something capable of decapacitating me," she said as she looked back at her friend. "Something capable of beating every one of us."  
"What is it? Do you know?" William asked.  
"X.A.N.A.'s creation," Cassandra did not know any better way to say it without identification. "His new general."  
"Is that why you don't want me to face the Scyphozoa?"  
"Yes. I don't want any more enemies to walk around the sector than necessary."

 _Your replacement. A glorious general._ The memory of Xanafied William saying that chilled Cassandra deep to the bone. Fear was very strong in her.

The memory of Xanafied William led to the Dark William, the torment when he had had Cassandra decapacitated. Cassandra wanted to cry out of fear or just do something, but she tried to keep her composure. She looked at the real William again, now consciously willing to burn his image over everything else. She wanted to purge herself of the fear that her time on Lyoko had brought.  
"Why can't you come to Earth?" William asked quietly.  
"I just can't," Cassandra answered. She did not want to explain. Her voice became a whisper, "I just can't."

William knew better than trying to prod for answers. He could see the fear and anguish in the girl's face. Instead of saying anything, he just moved next to Cassandra and wrapped his arm around her shoulder so that they were very close. Fear turned into genuine surprise, but Cassandra relaxed, leaning her head on her friend's shoulder. She was safe with William.

"I dare you, William, I double dare you!" Mathieu quoted a meme. "Go talk with Cassandra. Outside the club, she'll treat you just like she treats me, I'm sure!"  
"Mathieu, please," William said, exasperated. "There's no need for that."  
"Just do it. She won't kill you if she hasn't killed me," Mathieu looked at everyone else. "Right?"

Others looked just as exasperated, but William decided to give in. "Fine, I'll go. This once."

He walked towards the girl who, just like always, sat on a bench and read a book. Everyone in his friend group looked at the situation, unknowing that Cassandra had, once again, overheard everything.  
"Umm.. Hi, Cassandra," William greeted carefully. The girl looked up from her book which seemed to tell about ancient swords.  
"Do you want to mess with Mathieu or do you want be sent off like him?" she asked.  
"I dunno," William looked at the group, especially Mathieu. "Messing with Mathieu could be nice since he dared me to come talk with you."  
"Then sit down and let's chat," Cassandra took her bag off the bench, put her bookmark to the page she had stopped at and closed the book. William sat down next to the girl, not daring to look at the boys. Everyone looked surprised, but Mathieu looked the most aghast of them all.  
"Well... What are you reading?" William asked. Cassandra handed to book to him, saying, "It's about swords during the Antiquity. It's pretty interesting, but I've read more interesting stuff."

William took a look at the pages of the book. He could not help but be interested; he played quite a lot of video games the protagonists of which used swords, and with the swordplay club he had grown even more interested in swords.  
"Of course, it's amazing that people have been able to use metals for such things as swords even back then, but... it's just not as varied. It's just Ancient Rome and Greece. I prefer seeing the differences all over the world, not just one area, one continent," Cassandra noted.  
"It's good to concentrate on some areas to learn more about them sometimes, though," William said.  
"I know, but I want to see which is the most interesting area to start learning about," Cassandra said.  
"Hi," Mathieu had walked up to the two talking students.  
"Get lost, Mathieu, we're having an intelligent conversation here," Cassandra snapped at the boy who had just arrived.  
"I can talk intelligently, too!" Mathieu said.  
"I don't care. You are not interested anyways, so it doesn't matter if you can talk intelligent or not," Cassandra said coldly.  
"I bet William's not interested at all since I dared him to do this!" Mathieu snapped.  
"I wouldn't have done this if you hadn't dared me, but I'm genuinely interested, honestly," William defended himself. "You should try getting interested sometimes."  
"Don't waste oxygen, I think your advice is wasted on him," Cassandra noted. "I've told him that and it hasn't changed anything."  
"Well you don't even let me talk with you!" Mathieu said.  
"Because I know you're not interested in what I'm interested in, that's why," Cassandra noted.

She would have said even more, but the bell ringing cut her off. William handed the book back to her, and after taking her bag, Cassandra left. She walked past the group of William's friends, all of them looking at her in awe. When had she accepted William as someone to talk with?

There were hardly any lessons during which William did not sit next to Cassandra due to the lack of free places. Therefore, he sat next to Cassandra even during that lesson, the double lesson of mathematics. Suddenly William's concentration was broken by a piece of paper Cassandra suddenly slid in front of his eyes.

Surprised, William turned to look at the girl who continued doing the exercises as if nothing had happened, so the boy decided to look at the paper. There was text on it: _If you ever feel that you're done with Mathieu's shit, I think I can make some space for you next to me on the bench._ Was it an invitation? William glanced at Cassandra again, getting the girl's attention now. She mustered a small smile before turning her eyes back to the exercises.

William smiled too. Something had happened, and the girl seemed to have accepted him. This was actually going better than he expected. Maybe they were becoming friends now?

Cassandra was glad to have broken some ice, but at the same time she was also afraid of where she was headed. This was dangerous, and she was deeply afraid.

She hoped with all her soul that she had done the right decision, if there was one.

Because it if was not, she would be ruined again.

 **/Code Lyoko (c) Moonscoop, Cassandra Delorien, Riverain and the rest of its original characters (c) Me/**


	12. Chapter 11: Fearing

She stared her nightmare right into his eyes.  
"Hello, _Cass_ ," he said, his voice smooth as silk but just as dangerous as his Zweihänder's blade against her back. How on Lyoko had she ended up into this deadly embrace with the Dark William? He came just closer to her body and Cassandra knew she could not run away with the huge blade ready to slice her into oblivion if she tried anything. She had a weird feeling of being able to shoot something out of her hand, but she knew that she could not do what without getting killed in retaliation.  
"What do you want?" she asked. The Dark William chuckled.  
"You know what I want," he said quietly, lifting the girl's chin with his free hand. Cassandra did not dare to move even though she wanted to break free. Her heart beat fast, trying to break free of her earthly limits.  
"Cassandra, wake up!" Jeremy's voice broke in.

Flash.

The orange of the Desert Sector was gone. There was only the blackness of the tower. No Dark William, just Cassandra lying on the floor.  
"What?" the girl asked bluntly.  
"X.A.N.A. attacks the Core of Lyoko," Jeremy told. "Meet the others in the Core Zone." The girl did not answer. She just got up and left to the tower even though she absolutely did not feel like fighting right after another nightmare. This particular one felt like it had dried out her strength; she was more tired than she had been when she had fallen asleep.

When she saw William cutting a Scyphozoa's tentacles with a shockwave, she could not believe the monster had appeared without her knowing it. She was relieved to see her friend faring well against that awful thing, so she just nodded her acceptance to the boy and turned to slice the Creeper which had dared to come close to her. This was not how she had wanted to let go of him on this matter but right now she could do nothing about William leaving her protection behind her back.  
And in the end, it was just good and necessary that the boy fared. This proved that there could be times when she could not defend her loved friend from the Scyphozoa.  
"Let's go," Ulrich said as he activated the key and ended the countdown. The group ran past the rest of the Creepers, destroying only the ones that were close enough to be destroyed. There was no time to be wasted on random monsters.  
As soon as they reached the Celestial Dome, the vehicles were waiting for them. Vert, who acted as Cassandra's means of transport, was waiting for them there, too, allowing even Cassandra to leave for the Core of Lyoko instantly.  
"The first shield layer just disappeared. You have four mantas waiting for you there and three more are coming for you now. Be prepared," Jeremy informed them.  
"Vert, ready to shoot," Cassandra called out. She unsheathed her sword and made it large to act as a shield.  
"Odd, Aelita, Yumi, are you ready to attack? They are coming to your view now!" Jeremy told.  
"William, do you think you can throw a shockwave at them?" Yumi asked her fellow who rode the Overwing with her.  
"Not with one hand without getting us all killed," William answered. He held onto Yumi's shoulder with one hand to keep his balance on the ride. "If you can get us close enough, I can slice a Manta, but I can't use shockwaves midair like this."  
"You could try levitation. Then you'd have the space for swinging your huge sword," Ulrich noted.  
"That's way too risky. We don't have time for getting someone materialized if something goes wrong," Jeremy said. "Cut the showing off and do the things the safer way."  
"Jeremy is right," Cassandra noted. "Stop strutting your stuff and do the thing."

Odd destroyed one of the Mantas, while the two others faced their end via Yumi's fans. Ulrich and Cassandra rushed past the others as they fought to get to the Core chamber to meet the Mantas there. They had to be as quick as possible as the second shield layer got weaker and weaker.

The samurai sped away with Super Sprint, leaving the swordswoman behind to follow him. They both knew that the girl would reach the Mantas before the others anyway. Jeremy waited anxiously, forcing himself to watch the shield layer's durability go down point by point.  
"Guys, you must hurry up. The Mantas have to be destroyed quickly or else Lyoko is doomed!" he said.  
"We're on our way, Einstein," Odd said. "Banzaaaiiii!" The boy sped up from the entry point and up the stairs with his Overboard, Aelita shouting onboard. The pink-haired girl managed to catch a glimpse of Cassandra along the way, but as she had to concentrate on holding onto Odd to avoid falling, she could not look around very much.

As Cassandra reached the end of the stairs, Yumi and William had caught up with her. Ulrich had managed to destroy one of the four Mantas while two others shot at the Overboard, destroying it. Odd and Aelita fell. While Odd managed to catch the third remaining Manta with his claws, Aelita kept falling. _That's gonna hurt_ , Cassandra mused as she ran to race to the top.  
"Aelita!" Yumi shouted.  
"Get going, you can't help her!" Jeremy shouted. "She'll return to the scanner, but if the Mantas destroy the last shield layer, it's game over for all of you!"

Yumi and William both did not hesitate to heed the order. They ran behind Cassandra, unable to watch as Aelita fell down and hit the ground below them, starting to be devirtualized then. Just a few seconds later she fell to the floor from the scanner; this devirtualization had been a hard one.

In the meantime, Ulrich was shot by the two Mantas Odd had not occupied himself with. The samurai started to disappear into pixels too, leaving Odd to struggle with controlling the Manta he had landed on. Cassandra deflected one of the lasers and managed to hit a Manta with it. Right after that William's shockwave took the life of the other Manta which had devirtualized Ulrich.  
"Odd! Destroy your Manta, it's the only one remaining!" Yumi shouted. Odd did not respond with enough volume to be heard, but his Manta exploding was enough of an answer. Jeremy sighed in relief. The second shield layer could not have taken many shots anymore.  
"Just in time. Good job, everyone," he said. "I'll materialize you now."  
"Bye, Cass," William said. "See you later."  
"See ya, Cassandra!" Odd called out from his distance as he disappeared.  
"Bye," Cassandra replied quietly mostly to William. She sat down, putting her sword in front of her. She wanted to sleep but, knowing her nightmares to be lurking in her subconscious, she decided to just close her eyes and rest without sleep. She had to be ready for whatever would happen next.

The Lyoko Warriors left the factory soon to rush back to their lessons. Odd and the others and discussed about their mathematics test and how they had fared. Maths had never been Cassandra's strong point, earning her a B at the maximum in the tests. Her father had never liked that. _"And remember, if I ever catch you whoring with boys, you're going to regret it for good, you worthless whore,"_ her father had once threatened her when she had got a B from a test. She had been so upset and afraid of the threat becoming a reality she had skipped swordplay club for a couple of weeks, earning especially mister Bouchard's worry.

If someone had been more worried than him, it had most likely been William, who got his share of awful bits.

 _"How are you doing, Cassandra?" the boy had asked her the morning after that call which had upset Cassandra the most.  
"Leave me alone," Cassandra had replied simply. She did not want to even see this boy, let alone his group of friends.  
"What's wrong?" William asked.  
"Just leave me alone!" Cassandra shouted. The boy jumped and left quickly, passersby laughing at him._

In the evening, William went to the swordplay club's next session but Cassandra did not.  
"Perhaps she has her period now, so she's grumpier than usually and doesn't want to come," a boy named Samuel joked.  
"Samuel, that kind of immature jokes are not okay," mister Bouchard said strictly, "and they certainly don't belong to swordplay, so think before you joke about others' personal things."  
"Sorry," Samuel muttered.  
"William, do you know where Cassandra is? You two seem to have gotten along better since you joined the club," mister Bouchard asked, turning to the newest member of the club.  
"No, I don't. She sent me packing in the morning and hasn't talked to me ever since," William told. "Mathieu, do you have any idea what could have made her like that?"  
"No," Mathieu answered. "I do know that she's had times like these when she has been nasty even here, but I dunno what could have or would have upset her to act like that. This is actually even worse than previously. And when it comes to your joke, Samuel," Mathieu took an annoyed look at the younger boy, "such happens so rarely it can't be periods that makes her like that, so shut it."  
"Well, she'll probably come next time. Let's start," mister Bouchard said.

After a week, the situation had not changed; Cassandra seemed to shut herself to her room as soon as possible, skipping even some meals. Mister Bouchard decided to go talk with her. His knock on the girl's room's door was met with an annoyed "Go away."  
"Cassandra, it's me, mister Bouchard. I want to talk with you," the teacher said. After a short pause, the door cracked open. The pale girl looked at him, asking, "What is it?"  
"You've skipped the swordplay club's sessions for a week now. Is something wrong?"  
"No, no," the girl's voice sounded hesitant. "I just haven't been feeling well, so I decided to skip. Have I missed something important?"  
"No, but I was worried. You never skip the club sessions. Is there anything I could help you with?"  
"Umm, no. I'll manage. Thanks for asking, though," Cassandra hesitated. "I'll have a test next week and I need to study, so I'll probably skip the club this week too. But I'll return next week, I promise."  
"I see," mister Bouchard knew that Cassandra never put the club aside because of tests. "Are you sure everything's okay? You know, if anything's wrong, you can talk with me about it, and I'll help you in any way I can."  
"No worries, mister Bouchard, everything's just as fine as they have been," Cassandra mustered a smile. "Nothing's changed. I just need to study more than usual."  
"Very well, then. I'll see you on the lessons. Good luck with the test, Cassandra," mister Bouchard said, smiling. "I won't hold you any longer. I just wanted to make sure that you are ok."  
"Of course," Cassandra said, grateful and understanding. "Thanks for caring. Few teachers do to that extent. See you." The girl closed the door, leaving the PE teacher alone to the corridor.

As he left, he had no idea that the girl to whom he was like a father figure was crying. He had no idea what happened to the girl at home and what her parents did to her. He thought the girl's sudden need to study so much to be suspicious, but as he did not think of domestic violence to be the cause – after all, surely Cassandra would have told him by now since she had started to trust him during the years of swordplay club that much – he had no idea why Cassandra would suddenly act like that.

 _He never found out, anyway._

No one ever did.

 **/Code Lyoko (c) Moonscoop, Cassandra Delorien, Riverain and the rest of its original characters (c) Me/**


	13. Chapter 12: Darkness Surfacing

Yumi huffed in annoyance. She had hoped that after Cassandra's appearance William would have concentrated on the Lyoko-bound girl rather than her, but she had been dead wrong. As they had talked about how Cassandra had suddenly pushed William away after starting to befriend him in Riverain, it seemed that William was already forgetting the girl, leaving her behind, especially since the girl did not actively teach him anything anymore.

Yumi felt a bit sad for Cassandra; the poor girl was still in love with William, but it seemed that William had stopped loving her. The boy had moved on already even though Yumi could not blame him. After all, forced or not, Cassandra had stopped communicating with him. Yumi just wished William would give her another chance.

As the black-haired boy chatted very zealously with her once again about love, Yumi knew that it was probably a wish wasted.

Cassandra shuddered as she exited her battle trance. The nightmare William had grown more detailed ever since the real one had arrived on Lyoko the first time, and as the real William had grown more powerful, so had the Dark version of him. It was frightening. She had not forgotten how the copy of the Dark William had snuck up on her in the tower and even though she had seen him never after that, she feared that the copy was still out there. No one had reported having faced him, let alone beaten him.

In the meantime, as William had explained how Miranda Croaker, a classmate of theirs at Riverain, had tried to get between Cassandra and his slowly growing friendship, the others listened. It had turned out that this Miranda Croaker seemed to be jealous of the attention Cassandra got from Mathieu – and later William too. She had even tried to get William, who was not as stubborn as Mathieu, to hang out with her instead of the swordswoman, noting that the new-comer deserved better company than the nasty girl.

Yet Cassandra was no longer as nasty as she had used to be towards William and slowly towards others too. Yet the girl had started to become warmer and less emotionless after William had joined the swordplay club. No one dared to guess what had actually happened to her, but they all had concluded it was because of William. Perhaps his interest towards swordplay and what Cassandra said about it all had sparked some friendliness and even happiness in the girl. Before, no one even in the swordplay club had been that interested to actually talk with her, so finally meeting someone who was interested must have made a huge difference in the girl's life. After all, having someone to talk with made anyone happy.

And even if it did not, it made Cassandra happy. As her fear crept under her skin, she had finally seen light, a reason to risk everything. Perhaps she could escape her family once and for all.

As it had turned out, she had escaped them in the end with a high cost and ended up a prisoner of her fear on Lyoko. The source was far away, but the emotion still held her.

It still held her, and the girl knew it. As the weeks and months passed and she fought as a Lyoko Warrior, she became more and more aware of that she had been the prisoner of her fear in the first place. Her fear, not her parents or X.A.N.A. Fear had kept her from forming friendship with anyone before William and now that fear kept her on Lyoko, away from human life. She did not even know if her parents thought of her anymore after all these months. Actually, it was already a year after her escape to Lyoko. Probably she was long forgotten and could easily attend Kadic, but she could never be so sure.

Her fear told her not to be so sure about that. Anything could happen and then she would, once again, be hurt. She did not want to risk it. She wanted to avoid get hurt now that she had learnt to understand that she was not supposed to get hurt by her parents. She wanted to avoid the pain and losing what had made her able to escape: her love, William.

Even if it meant staying on Lyoko under the mercy of X.A.N.A. and nightmares of the Dark William forever.

She would not let herself wind up hurt by her parents again. She was sure of that.

No matter what even William would tell her to do.

Another X.A.N.A. attack was launched, this time via a tower. As a herd of Xanafied dogs did its their best to hold the Lyoko Warriors down, only Odd, Aelita and William managed to get past as Jeremy, Ulrich and Yumi were forced to shut themselves into the cafeteria.  
"Cassandra, do you copy?" Aelita asked as the group reached the computer lab.  
"I do. What's the situation?" Cassandra replied.  
"Xanafied dogs attacked us. Jeremy, Ulrich and Yumi stayed at the school while the rest of us got away," Aelita told.  
"No one using the supercomputer on Earth then?" Cassandra asked.  
"Exactly. I'll launch the delayed virtualization process so that three of us can get there," Aelita answered.  
"Going blindly into the battle? I have a bad feeling about this," Cassandra noted, worried.  
"We can beat everything X.A.N.A. throws into our way, can't we, William?" Odd said cheerfully. William nodded, saying, "We can pull this through. It's not the first time we go blindly in."

Cassandra looked over her shoulder. Even though the Arena kept spinning without any corridors opening, the thought of the Scyphozoa and the Dark William's copy somewhere out there frightened her.  
"This would be an ideal situation for a trap by X.A.N.A.," she said, turning to look at the others again via her visual to the supercomputer. "That's what worries me the most."  
"Come on, Cass, put a bit more confidence in William. He's much more skillful than back when he first came on Lyoko!" Odd noted.  
"First of all, don't use that name," Cassandra said, immediately angered. "Second, I never said I was not confident in William's skills or that I was worried for only him. X.A.N.A. could get us all if it's successful, either devirtualizing us or using a Scyphozoa against us. No matter how skillful we are, we all still can be caught."  
"Cassandra is right. X.A.N.A. can get us if its traps work," Aelita said solemnly. She knew exactly what Cassandra was talking about. "Odd, you should know that well enough after all the times the Scyphozoa has caught me. Let's get to the scanners now before the time runs out."  
"I'll stand by and hope nothing comes and kills me before you get here," Cassandra said and closed the window as the three Lyoko Warriors rushed to the elevator and left for the scanners.

 _Just a minute later_

Odd, William and Aelita dropped to the Arena. Cassandra was waiting for them, examining her sword. It was unusually spiky.  
"Wow, I've never seen you use spikes," Odd noted. Cassandra glared at him before turning back to look at her sword, her thumb running on the blade and its spikes. William got the idea; something was wrong.  
"What's with your sword?" he asked.  
"I don't know, and that's what worries me," Cassandra said and bit her lip. The feeling that had crept to her gut made her nervous. "Something's not right at all and I have no idea if it's caused by something out there or... if it's within me." The corridor opened. "We must get going." She started to run and the others followed, ready to look for the key.

In the meantime, the dogs tried to dig a tunnel to the cafeteria when they could not reach the window.  
"This doesn't look too good," Ulrich said, stressed out but ignoring frightened fellow students who had been eating when the dogs had attacked. "Let's hope they don't get in."  
"I think they won't get in. The structures should be that solid," Yumi said.

Jeremy had sat down and tried to connect to Lyoko to help the others by providing tactical information. Unfortunately, his laptop was not advanced enough to tap into the more advanced parts of the supercomputer, but he knew he could establish an audio connection with at least Cassandra if he was able to open the map and see what was going on.

He also tried to keep his mind off his own situation by concentrating on the situation of those who were the only ones who could help them.

The spikes were not only in Cassandra's sword; the room of the key was covered in them!  
"Now what?" William asked.  
"The key is on the ceiling," Cassandra noted. The way up there was covered in spikes.  
"The only one who can reach them is William," Aelita said.  
"That'll be tricky," William noted. "I've never used my levitation power is such a hazardous area."  
"There are no alternative choices," Odd said. "If I could fly, I'd go."  
 _No alternative choices, huh?_ a malevolent voice chuckled in Cassandra's head. _I could provide you one if you wanted._ The mint-haired girl turned to look over her shoulder again, the spikes intensifying on her sword. There was no one there.  
"What is it, Cassandra?" Aelita asked.  
"Nothing," Cassandra replied sourly. She tried to make the spikes smaller, but her efforts had little effect. She wanted to run away more than stay and fight the spikes – or whatever was out there, waiting to get her. Luckily William's careful levitation was proving to be more successful as he had avoided spikes or blocked them with his sword to avoid deadly contact.

William reached the key and the spikes started to disappear, allowing him to drop back down unharmed. However, there was a gap between them and the opened corridor.  
"Can we all jump over this?" Odd asked.  
"I don't think so," Cassandra said. She had never been good at jumping.  
"I'll create a path for us," Aelita said. She closed her eyes to use creativity. A bridge started to form.

Creepers moaned behind them, and the three unoccupied Lyoko Warriors turned to look at them. There were five of them.  
"Laser arrows!" Odd shouted and started shooting. Unfortunately, the Creepers followed suit and shot back as one of them blew up. William used his sword to protect Aelita from lasers while Cassandra deflected lasers purely for her own defense. Even though she had spent a lot of time with them on missions, the girl had not learned that much teamwork skills to help them out. She was one of them, fought for the same goal and did the same things as the others, but rarely helped anyone out if not necessary. She still was a loner, it had turned out.  
"The bridge is ready, let's go!" Aelita said and threw an Energy field on one Creeper, destroying it.  
"Cass, cover Aelita, I'll handle the Creepers!" William told. The girl nodded to him and quickly took his place between the Creepers and Aelita, deflecting lasers as they retreated to the bridge. William sliced the remaining two Creepers with ease and followed the others.

Cassandra did not do teamplay on her own initiative, but calculating as she was, she knew that she had to work with others to achieve the common goal. Protecting Aelita was the most important thing when the mission was to deactivate tower, that was clear without even calculating, since the pink-haired girl was the only one who could deactivate the tower and finish the mission. The others were just sidekicks helping her to get there.

The spikes got stronger in Cassandra's sword. Something was getting closer.  
"We must be real careful," she said. "Something's coming."  
"How do you know?" Aelita asked.  
"I just feel it," Cassandra replied, remembering the voice in her head. "It's something awful."  
"Let's keep our guards up then," William said and moved to the front. If anything was to attack them at the end of the corridor, he would be the one facing it first, protecting the others. Odd went next to Aelita while Cassandra, hiding her fear, was the last one. When they stopped near the end of the corridor, the mint-haired girl could not help looking over her shoulder for whatever threat that could be out there to get her – get them. There was none but it did not relieve the girl. Something was coming at them at high speed, she felt.  
"I can't see any threats aside from Creepers. Let's go," William said. Somehow, he had subconsciously assumed some sort of a role as the leader even though he had the least experience. Perhaps it was just that they did not have anyone informing them about attackers, so he was the one who took control and responsibility. He was the oldest and, in brute strength, the strongest, so it felt natural that he took the lead and, if necessary, the first hit.

Without a word, they reached the room of the tower. Creepers started shooting, and soon Odd and Aelita shot at them behind William and Cassandra who blocked the lasers. As the monsters scattered, Odd and Aelita ran from their protectors to get a better aim. Cassandra and William ran to meet the monsters head on with their blades, William staying close to Aelita. Cassandra lured the monsters away from the others, wanting to take them on away from others to avoid bumping into her fellows.

Odd was devirtualized by lasers. Cassandra reflected the next lasers at the monsters who had made the purple cat warrior disappear. Spikes intensified, maiming the Creepers in front of her. When the monsters died and their moaning stopped, Cassandra heard something weird coming from the corridor behind her.

As she turned, a black ball came at her. Cassandra smacked it and then saw that the ball morphed into a human form that punched her to the ground. Cassandra quickly found her clattering sword despite of dizziness and prepared to fight but saw the attacking figure now going towards Aelita and William with a Zweihänder.  
"William! Aelita! Look out!" Cassandra cried out in a more humane horror than she had expected to feel.

The two Lyoko Warriors noticed the new attacker immediately. Aelita cried out in fear and held her arms up in a futile attempt to protect herself from the deadly blade. William acted, his sword meeting the attacker's. He immediately realized he was being overpowered by the weight of both swords and the sheer strength of the attacker. He fell to his rear and moved his left hand to his blade, trying to balance the weight. Aelita destroyed the Creepers that threatened them while Cassandra got up.

Everything took a blacker shade and a battle in the back of her mind was creeping closer, but Cassandra did not mind. The spikes intensifying, becoming sleeker, becoming longer, she dashed and impaled the attacker with a black suit and black hair. That much she could register. She had no idea that her eyes had gone completely black as she could not see it. However, William saw it and gasped in horror.

The attacker turned, revealing a face that looked a lot like William's face. Now Cassandra knew who it was; it was the Dark William's clone! The clone smirked.  
"You can never escape me," he said with a menacingly low volume and laughed as he disappeared. Cassandra fainted and fell, her spiky sword hardly making any sounds as it hit the ground. Aelita, having noticed the mysterious attacker's defeat, had already entered the tower.  
"Cass!" William shouted and tossed his sword aside to get to his friend. "Cass, can you hear me? Cass?"

Cassandra heard her friend's voice from somewhere far away, up. She sensed that she had fallen very far down into the dark inside her. So far down that she could hardly hear the Dark William laugh. It was an empty space, like a sanctuary of nothingness. She could hear everything but could do nothing about it. As long as she could hear anything, it would be a prison, not a sanctuary.  
"Cass, please, wake up! Answer me!" William asked desperately. Cassandra raised her hand, noticing now that she was lying in the nothingness. A strong hand took her hand, but to her shock the girl noticed that the hand was not covered by a white and black glove but a dark gray half-glove. Cassandra could see a spiky wristband and tried to shake her hand away from the grip. Yet it was already too late for that, as the hand dragged her up on her feet. Cassandra used the momentum she got and plummeted up towards the real William's voice. The dark hand lost its grip, its owner laughing somewhere in the darkness.

Cassandra opened her eyes which revealed the blue colors of Sector Five and William's worried face. Aelita called William somewhere on the left of Cassandra. William turned to look at the pink-haired girl to acknowledge her call and then turned back.  
"Cass? Can you hear me?" he asked. Cassandra nodded and opened her mouth to ask, "What happened to me?"  
"You fainted when that dude who attacked us was devirtualized," William explained. "He said something about you being unable to escape him, and your eyes... they were completely black! Like no iris or white! Just pure black!"  
"Black?" Aelita repeated. "Are you sure?"  
"Of course I am!" William noted. "Does that mean something?"  
"I don't know, but I doubt it's normal," Aelita said, worried.  
"Lemme get up, will you?" Cassandra asked. "I'm sick of lying around on the ground."  
"Sure," William replied and, even though not asked to, he helped Cassandra to sit up. "How are you feeling?"  
"Dizzy," Cassandra answered shortly. "So, you said that the attacker said something that I can't escape him?"  
"Yes," William said. "Do you know him?"

Cassandra pondered. She did not want to tell William just how much she actually knew. She did not want to admit how afraid she truly was.  
"I think he was the one who snuck up on me when I was in the tower," she told. "But now that he's gone, he should not cause trouble." _Unless you become him or X.A.N.A. creates another clone_ , she continued in her mind.  
"How can you be so sure he's gone?" Aelita asked.  
"I impaled him. He disappeared and won't come back," Cassandra said stubbornly. "I doubt he has a stable form that lets him come back after a devirtualization."  
"I can run a check on the map when we get to the lab," Aelita noted. "Odd, are you there?"  
"I am," Odd answered. "Einstein called and said that they're OK. The dogs ran away, so no Return to the Past needed."  
"Good," Aelita said. "William, let's devirtualize each other."  
"Uhh.. Cass, can you make it to the tower without us?" William asked, worried about her friend.  
"Of course I can," Cassandra replied with unusual calmness. She was too tired to snap at her friend who meant well. The fight inside her head had become very dull but it tired her still. To prove her capability of walking she got up on her feet only to stagger as she did so. William reacted to it immediately, catching her before the girl would fall.  
"Wait, where's my sword?" Cassandra suddenly asked.  
"It's on the ground," Aelita told. Cassandra turned her head to finally see the awful spikes. The wristband came to her mind. _Is this a warning?_

With careful movements, she picked her sword up, the spikes disappearing into black smoke as soon as she lifted the light blade. It was a warning, she was now sure of that. The words surfaced from her memory, taunting her. She was the prisoner of her own fear.  
"I will escape. Damn you if you stand in my way," she muttered so quietly that William could not make out her words.

When the Dark William was far away, but an image in her mind, it was easy to act strong and brave even though she was shuddering inside. The fight was not over.

No, it was just starting.

William devirtualized Aelita so that the pink-haired girl could get to the supercomputer and scan Lyoko while he helped Cassandra to get to the tower, unaware of just how afraid the girl was and what she truly was afraid of.

William's fight had started the moment he had fallen on Lyoko's surface the first time months ago, but only now Cassandra's true fight had begun. They just did not know it.

Oh, they had no idea what they had ran into today...

 **/Code Lyoko (c) Moonscoop, Cassandra Delorien, Riverain and the rest of its original characters (c) Me/**


	14. Chapter 13: Raven

_Cassandra stared at the ravens. They surrounded her, interested by her stillness. Was the girl a statue? The other students looked at the surreal-looking view.  
"William, what's she doing?" Mathieu asked.  
"Don't ask me, I dunno," William answered.  
"This isn't the first time ravens have come to her," Aidan noted. "They just haven't come with this big numbers."  
"Does this mean something?" Mathieu wondered. "You know, that view is just so weird."_

 _One of the ravens landed on Cassandra's head. The girl was not disturbed by this. The ravens did not speak her language much – some said common words – but they were good and intelligent companions. She had liked them for long by now._

There was a raven drawn to the ground before the tower. Cassandra frowned and looked over her shoulder and all around.  
"Jeremy, is there anything I should be aware of here?" she asked.  
"No. Why do you ask?" Jeremy asked.

As an answer Cassandra showed visual on the picture. "Someone's been artistic here but it hasn't been me."  
"Who could have done that?" Aelita wondered.  
"What is that thing anyways?" Odd asked, trying to make out the lines from behind Ulrich's shoulder.  
"Looks like a raven," William noted.  
"I thought so too," Cassandra said. She looked over her shoulder again. "Any idea if anyone's been here while we were saving the Core of Lyoko?"  
"None that I noticed," Jeremy said.  
"Maybe a Creeper got bored and decided to make art for you," Odd suggested, grinning.  
"Very funny," Cassandra muttered and kneeled to touch the painting. The lines had been cut into the ground and the dark color was like soot; it got attached to her fingers and spread. "This is no monster's doing."  
"Then what has done that?" Ulrich asked.

Cassandra looked up from the painting to the tower.  
"Jeremy, are you absolutely sure there is no one in the tower?" she asked.  
"I am," Jeremy answered. "Why do you ask?"  
"This feels like a trap," Cassandra said and took her sword. It was not spiky, but that proved nothing to her. She could not trust it to indicate a trap by this threat. Jeremy ran a scan on the tower and the nearby area, informing the girl about the result, "There is no one but you in the area."  
"I hope you are right," Cassandra said. She went around the painting and walked into the tower. There was no one waiting for her, but the interface was on, blinking with a message.  
"What the hell...?" Cassandra opened the message.  
"What is it, Cass?" William asked.  
Cassandra did not read it aloud nor let Jeremy fetch the message to the supercomputer's screen. This would be her personal business. The message said:  
 _I bet ya noticed the raven there. I'm that good an artist, aren't I?  
Yeah, no trap this time. Just an artwork for ya. Ya know, a reminder of where you came from: Earth; Riverain, where ravens are common. Yeah, I looked that up. But ya get the picture. Literally, too. I included it there so that ya can admire it always. I mean, ya like ravens, don't ya?  
Why am I doing this all for ya? Well, I just wanted you to know, that I'm still out here somewhere. I'll always be.  
You'll never escape me, Cass.  
Never.  
-You know who_

Cassandra closed the message and moved it alongside its attachment into a password-protected area away from Jeremy and the others alongside other nightmare material she had written down and gathered. X.A.N.A. was just messing with her.  
"Cass, what's wrong?" William asked.  
"Nothing," Cassandra answered evenly. She was not bothered by the message that much; the raven and its meaning bothered her more. The painting had not come out of nowhere. The familiar smell of smoke was strong in the soot that had stuck into her fingers when she had touched the painting. It was definitely him.

But could she tell the others about it?  
"Cassandra, if you know something, you must tell us," Jeremy said strictly.  
"That attacker from a couple of weeks ago is not gone, it seems," Cassandra told bluntly. "According to the message, he's behind that artwork."  
"What was the message about?" Ulrich asked.  
"Just telling me that it was him and that he ain't gone," Cassandra said. "Well, the next time he appears, we know to be waiting for him."  
"I don't have a good feeling about that," Aelita said. "He's dangerous with his huge sword."  
"True, his sword was so heavy it overpowered me. Sure, I do struggle with my own since it's heavy too, but that guy's sword just made it worse," William said.  
"Then we must be very careful when he's around," Ulrich noted. "He sounds dangerous."  
"He is," Cassandra said. "Very dangerous."  
"Shouldn't you be materialized to Earth then? If he's still out there, you are in danger," Aelita asked, worried.  
"I'd rather stay here," Cassandra said stubbornly. "I can fight him."

No one wanted to argue. The girl had made up her mind.

Days passed by. Cassandra researched the files of the Dark William's clone. She needed to know what she was up against. She needed to know what this thing was. However, she found nothing that could help. She did not understand the pieces of code, and she certainly did not understand their ties to her.

She knew she could ask Jeremy to look into it, but she wanted to keep it to herself. This was her business, it would always be until X.A.N.A. would make it otherwise.

And X.A.N.A. had better never make it otherwise...

 **/Code Lyoko (c) Moonscoop, Cassandra Delorien, Riverain and the rest of its original characters (c) Me/**


	15. Chapter 14: Darker than Nightmares

Cassandra rushed through Lyoko. The William with black and white suit followed him, gaining on her with X.A.N.A.'s marks on his eyes. The Scyphozoa had succeeded at getting him while he had succeeded at disarming Cassandra after Xanafication.

Familiar laughter erupted from around the corner as the Dark William appeared in front of the running girl, stopping her. Cassandra was trapped between two versions of her love. She looked at them both.  
"Which one will you choose? If you save him, you'll have me. If you destroy me, he'll become me," the Dark William said, grinning.  
"If those are the choices," Cassandra said evenly, "then I know what to choose." She took the heavy Zweihänder from the real William, devirtualized him and struck at the Dark William, hoping to finish him off as well. She made a direct hit. The Dark William laughed, "YOU WILL NEVER ESCAPE ME!"

Cassandra let the Zweihänder drop to the ground. It was too heavy for her. She had managed to defeat the threat but for how long could she do that? When would she fail and drag William into her nightmares?

She did not know even when she woke up, realizing it had been just a nightmare.

Jeremy called her to help with saving the Core of Lyoko. Cassandra rushed to meet the others, only to witness William being knocked to the ground by a Creeper, then trapped away from the others.  
"William, look out! The Scyphozoa!" Jeremy shouted. He received only a cry from William before the supercomputer informed him that the Scyphozoa had caught the Lyoko Warrior. "Everyone, William was caught by the Scyphozoa!"  
"I'm trying to get through!" Aelita said, trying to concentrate on her Creativity, only to be shot to devirtualization by another Creeper.  
"NO!" Cassandra and Jeremy cried out. Jeremy watched helplessly as the Scyphozoa finished its work. Cassandra ignored the Creepers and Yumi's work to get to the key. She had to find William and stop him. "Jeremy, guide me to William! He needs to be stopped!"  
"Don't go alone, Cassandra!" Jeremy said.  
"Somebody, come with me!" Cassandra told. Ulrich sprinted to join her.  
"What can we do to stop him?" Ulrich asked.  
"Anything! We must devirtualized him!" Cassandra said. She felt the nightmare begin in her head and she prayed that the Dark William's clone would not appear on them.

The Xanafied William encountered them in a tight corridor. He raised his Zweihänder.  
"I'll handle him," Ulrich said.  
"No, we must work together. The last time was hard already, we must think of something," Cassandra said.  
"What plans can we make without him hearing us?" Ulrich asked.  
"I don't know," Cassandra said, horrified by the evil grin on her friend's face. The nightmare fight in her head had begun and suddenly she was frozen inside.

Spikes appeared. The corridor darkened. Cassandra tried to think. There had to be a way to beat their powerful opponent.  
"Supersprint!" Ulrich shouted and dashed at his rival.  
"Ulrich!" Cassandra shouted. She watched helplessly when William smacked the samurai away with his sword. The katana fell in front of Cassandra. William devirtualized Ulrich. Cassandra wanted to cry to the samurai, "Don't leave me!" However, it was already too late. She was all alone against William. If she failed, she could doom everyone.  
"What are you gonna do now?" William asked, laughing like an evil maniac.

Cassandra had no idea. She looked at Ulrich's sword, then at her own which was getting spiky. The room was even darker now. Cassandra looked at William, his evil grin and Zweihänder. It was all about one hit. How could she beat brute force with agility and cunning in a place like this?

Cassandra picked up the katana. Maybe dual-wielding would help. She looked into William's eyes.  
"What are you gonna do? You think your fallen comrade's sword will help you?" the boy laughed.

Cassandra did not say a word. The darkness was taking over and the back of her head was a battleground. Without a thought, she dashed to attack her Xanafied comrade. William seemed surprised, but she did not care; she did not even care that she was suddenly moving faster than she was supposed to. Her consciousness had gone comatose, letting the body move almost on its own. The nightmare had eaten her and she only fought like a drone.

William fought with sheer force, certain that he would be able to defeat the drone-like girl. Yet Cassandra dodged attacks, blocked something, attacked numbly but with deadly precision. In the small corridor, William had trouble staying untouched by the blades. When reduced into a drone outside by the nightmares which had consumed her mind's understanding of time and place, Cassandra's fighting became more ruthless and precise than ever before. Holding William's body in its hold, X.A.N.A. felt something that was as close to fear as it had ever got.

Cassandra made a cold slash at William's shoulder. The Xanafied boy looked at in horror and noticed then that the girl was already walking away from the ending battle. He tried to make a final attack, but it never reached Cassandra.  
"Good work, Cassandra. Follow my instructions and I'll lead you to the elevator," Jeremy said. Cassandra did not answer. "Cassandra? Can you hear me? Where are you going?"

Cassandra said nothing as the nightmares kept on happening while her body made its way to the shortcut. She walked through the wall, took her sword and attacked the closest Creepers which were attacking the Core of Lyoko while Yumi, Aelita and Odd fought their brethren further away from her.

The Creepers moaned and shot at her, but with two blades she could both attack and defend at the same time. When the katana slashed at the monsters, the sabre blocked lasers and the other way around. The nightmares were now fading yet Cassandra was still a cold killer machine fighting her way through all the Creepers she reached.  
"That really didn't feel good," William complained as he walked into the lab. "What's going on?"  
"You got Xanafied. Cassandra devirtualized you," Ulrich told. "The others are now trying to get rid of the monsters at the Core."  
"Did I devirtualize you?" William asked.  
"Yes," Ulrich said and shrugged. "I wasn't fast enough." He waited for Cassandra's remark on that they should have attacked together but it never came.  
"I'm worried about Cassandra. She became very weird after she attacked you," Jeremy said.  
"What's wrong with her?" William asked, worried by Jeremy's words.  
"She doesn't answer me nor say anything. She's doing things she wants to do with no thoughts about teamwork anymore," Jeremy said. A Creeper disappeared with Odd and Cassandra next to it. Odd complained about Cassandra stealing his monster. "See? She's clashing with Odd now!"  
"I don't think that's anything new," William said.  
"I swear, this is different. Like now, she's just going away without a word! Something's wrong with her," Jeremy said.  
"Well, there's nothing we can do, is there?" Ulrich noted.  
"No. We can only wait until the attack is over," Jeremy sighed.

Aelita destroyed the last monster. Cassandra stopped at the sight of that.  
"Hey, what's with you, Cass?" Odd asked angrily as he came to the sword-wielder. Cassandra did not answer.  
"Hey, what's with your eyes?" Odd asked, noticing that the girl's eyes were dark.

The evil laughter in Cassandra's head was intolerable. Inside her head, she was pushed to the ground, helpless and defeated. She had lost the fight.

The swords slipped out of her hands and she fell on her back, unconscious.  
"Cassandra!" Aelita shouted. "Jeremy, she lost her consciousness! What's wrong with her?"  
"I'm trying to figure it out. There seems to be nothing wrong with her," Jeremy answered.  
"Cass..." William whispered. _What's wrong with you?_

 _Cassandra looked at William. He was leaning to a tree, reading something. There was something about him that made Cassandra's cheeks warm, yet she could not figure out what it was._

 _She knew that she would only hurt him if she got that close to him. She would get hurt as well._

 _It was no use. Cassandra turned her back on him and left to kill her emotions. All of them.  
_  
Laughter echoed in the darkness. The Dark William was on the loose within her psyche. It was far too dark to see him. _Where are you, coward?_

A sudden jab and more light. The darkness was ripped open by light blue.  
"Cass! Are you ok?" Odd asked. His voice pierced into Cassandra's head.  
"Shut up and don't use that name," Cassandra growled.  
"Are you ok?" Odd repeated.  
"SHUT UP!" Cassandra shouted and shoved her fellow away from her, then sat up. All the voices and movement hurt her head. "Just shut up, all of you."

The girl sat up, staggering. She saw the Heart of Lyoko. Was this where the fight had led her? _No monsters... So the attack is over, is it?_ Something in her told her that she had prevailed against the Dark William yet lost to him. It was a bizarre feeling.  
"Cass?" William called. It was the real William, Cassandra noticed.  
"What happened?" Cassandra asked.  
"You battled me when I was Xanafied and then went to help the others," William answered.  
"Okay."  
"What happened to you anyway?" William asked.  
"I dunno."  
"Surely you have some idea," Ulrich said.  
"I don't."

William and Ulrich exchanged glances. They both saw that there was nothing Cassandra was willing to share with them. As frustrating as it was, they had to stay in ignorance.

Cassandra wanted to make sure that they would always stay that way.

Always.

 **/Code Lyoko (c) Moonscoop, Cassandra Delorien, Riverain and the rest of its original characters (c) Me/**


	16. Ending: What would've happened?

**/Author's note: This piece of text was extracted from the DeviantArt version of the story with no edits other than the same revisions made. That's why there are dates which differ from what this place shows for this story./**

It's official now. Swordswoman of Shadows duology is no more. I simply cannot continue it anymore, I have no interest nor passion in it. The final chapter took half a year to make as it was written on literally every Sunday since the submission of chapter 13 on July 30th. With prologue included, 15 chapters have been released since the beginning in May 2015, nearly three years ago. It's time to let it die.

"Let the past die. Kill it if you have to." -Kylo Ren, _The Last Jedi_

Cassandra left the Lyoko Warriors in ignorance about her nightmares. What would have happened in the future if her journey would have continued?

At some point, the Dark Williams clone would have revealed himself to all the Lyoko Warriors, forcing Cassandra to admit her nightmares. At the same time, she would have revealed her nightmare powers which X.A.N.A. has utilized to make her life hell on Lyoko. She would have had to face the Dark William on her own while he would have held the real William over the edge with his black smoke, causing her to take William's sword and utilize her friend's powers through it just like she unnoticeably used Ulrich's Supersprint in chapter 14 against the Xanafied William. This would've made her wonder what was wrong with her and Jeremy finding out she had some sort of codes in her giving her those powers and a link between the clone they had fought against.

* * *

Here's part of the attack where the Dark William is revealed, written initially as Chapter 14 but then discarded and put to rest until a later chapter where to use the stuff I already wrote:

Chapter ?: The Dark One from The Nightmares

Cassandra felt it deep inside her. The attack was near. This would change everything.

The Dark William was on the move.  
"Come asap. X.A.N.A. has sent brute force. Be prepared for a big fight," Cassandra said. Everything looked darker than normally, and her sword was spiky again.

She took a deep breath and jumped out of the activated tower. There were no monsters there yet, so she rushed to the Arena to meet the others. The Dark William was somewhere out there and they needed all the help they could get.  
"What's the brute force you're talking about, Cass?" William asked as they met.  
"It's that attacker," Cassandra answered and looked at him and Ulrich. "Prepare your swords, the three of us will fight him sword-to-sword. The others can attack from a distance him when he's occupied with at least one of us."  
"Is it wise to put half of our strength on one enemy?" Ulrich asked.  
"Yes, because this enemy is as deadly as us. We need to get rid of him fast or he'll beat us all one by one," Cassandra answered. "Let's go, time to find the key. Stay sharp, all of you." She turned and led the group onwards, spikifying saber ready to strike at any and every threat which would appear in front of it – and her.

Aelita stayed next to Odd and Yumi, behind the three sword-users. She was afraid of the attacker who had nearly devirtualized her the last time he had appeared. Cassandra's attitude did not help at all.

Cassandra cried out, smashing her saber at Creepers as if it was a machete. The monsters died, their creepy moans breaking the pressing silence.  
 _Where are you, you fucker?_ Cassandra wondered, looking around. No smoke, only the darkening room. The room was silent aside from the noises the Lyoko Warriors made.  
"Hurry, you don't have much time. X.A.N.A.'s on the move, and it seems he's trying to destroy the area with a hurricane," Jeremy said.  
"Let's go," Ulrich said, rushing ahead of everyone. All of a sudden, something struck him from the front in the corridor, causing the samurai to devirtualize. The others stopped and prepared to battle whatever was coming from there. Cassandra heard a familiar voice, but it was going away from them.  
"What was that?" Odd asked.  
"I don't know, I couldn't identify it," Jeremy said. He turned to look at his friend, who came from the scanners. "Ulrich, are you ok?"  
"It just appeared out of nowhere. All I saw was a huge sword and then I was in a scanner. I didn't see it coming," Ulrich said.  
"What a coward. He's trying to take us out by surprise," Cassandra growled, her sword's spikes intensifying with anger. She felt like running after the attacker to get rid of him, but she had to keep herself under control.

* * *

Sometime after being Xanafied in chapter 14, William would start having nightmares. Here's the first one, extracted from my Writer+ app where the plans have rested for ages:

William was in the Celestial Dome. He was walking towards Cassandra's back, watching her hair sway in the wind of Lyoko.  
"Cass? What did you want to talk about?" William asked. Cassandra turned while her head suddenly disappeared, revealing behind it the face most similar to William: his own. Cassandra's figure disintegrated in front of a William that had a black and red suit with X.A.N.A.'s symbol all over it, but the real William, frozen still by shock, could barely identify anything as the black-suited William came at him, his face filling his view.

William gasped as he sat up, tangled in his sweat-drenched blanket. As his sight sharpened into revealing the furniture of his room, he understood that the all-too-real-feeling event had been a nightmare.  
"Oh man..." Willian tried to wipe away the sweat from his forehead but it was useless because he was completely covered in it. There was nothing to wipe the sweat away to.  
"I guess I have to take a shower," he muttered to himself, checking the time – it was about 1 AM.

In the morning at the cafeteria:  
"Good morning, William!" Aelita greeted cheerfully the black-haired boy who only muttered a weak "hello" as a response.  
"You haven't slept well?" Odd asked.  
"How did you guess that?" Willian asked.  
"You look just like Einstein does when he has been up all night. Look at the example of what he may look like those times," Odd noted and pointed his thumb at the tired Jeremy who had dark circles and an open laptop.  
"Okay," William muttered and returned back to stirring his cocoa with a spoon.  
"What's wrong? Did you see a nightmare?" Ulrich asked teasingly and a bit gloatingly. William looked right into his eyes; the brown-haired boy had chosen to sit opposite to him.  
"Actually yes. I didn't get much sleep after that," he replied calmly. "I guess changing the sheets after sweating during that nightmare activated my brains too much."  
"What happened in that nightmare?" Aelita asked, worried.  
"Not much..." William said and explained the nightmare's contents shortly. He had no idea that Cassandra was listening to it via Jeremy's laptop.

* * *

After this, the nightmare would recur only with the setting changing.

"Again? I wonder if that means something," Yumi said.  
"You know, the nightmares started after you got Xanafied by the Scyphozoa the first time on Lyoko. And you saw dreams of what never came to be again after Returning to the Past before you became a Lyoko Warrior. Maybe those are linked," Ulrich suggested.  
"So you suggest that the other William is a Xanafied version of me?" William asked.  
"Yes," was the sudden answer coming from Jeremy's laptop. Cassandra opened up a window there to see the others. "William, we need to talk. After school."  
"Where on Lyoko?" William could not help remembering the nightmares.  
"Actually I'd like to come _there_ , to Earth. It'd do me good to breathe real fresh air," Cassandra said. "What do you say?"  
"If you can get here, then I say it's great!" William said, now more excited than he sounded through his tiredness.  
"Then I'll see you at the factory after school." Cassandra closed the window.

* * *

After this, Cassandra would be materialized, go for a walk with William and discuss her own nightmares and the threats X.A.N.A. has made. Then she would return to Lyoko, unwilling to stay on Earth because it's not safe for her because her parents could find her there.

Time would pass since these incidents, X.A.N.A. would threaten William more while Cassandra would keep combatting against the Dark William and discuss her past with William and the others, leading to the moment when the two would have revealed how they got together, how Cassandra started to heal as she learned to deal with her emotions and how, as an announcement of their relationship, William put all the love letters he had written for her all around the school, getting expelled. Cassandra did not tell him not to do that, which she has been shown to regret in _Shadows of Past_. This incident led Cassandra's parents finding out about the relationship and taking their girl from Riverain even though William had already left to Kadic and start abusing her again from which X.A.N.A. saved her.

Some time would pass. Then the story would end with this scene:  
Cassandra has a strong nightmare and won't wake up despite being called. The others go to her after saving the Heart of Lyoko and William wakes her up by taking her sword from her hands, causing her to scream while waking up "Don't kill me!" Confused and scared, Cassandra tells others to leave, but William stays. Cassandra then breaks down on him, tells him that she is so scared and that she wishes she was not as bad a person as she was, but good and kind just like William. She says that despite of how nasty she's been to him, when she has needed someone, even told everyone to leave, William has always been there for her. She thanks him. William realizes how he got past her shield in the first place: she broke down on him in Riverain. Flashback. Cassandra starts to show more trust and closeness to him, and thus the return to Earth can begin.

In _Shadows of Future_ , Cassandra enrolls at Kadic, joining William and Yumi's class. The fight against X.A.N.A. continues. William may or may not end up Xanafied like in Code Lyoko's Season 4, but even if he did end up Xanafied, he would be welcomed back happily after getting freed no matter why he had gotten caught by the Scyphozoa. In the meantime, Franz Hopper would still evade their grasp, hidden from X.A.N.A. in the network. Cassandra would re-establish contact with Riverain's swordplay club and be in correspondence with them, hoping to get to visit them at some point.

While searching for a way to counter her nightmare powers, Cassandra would end up realizing that the Dark William who has tormented her in her dreams and as clones on Lyoko is in fact one being which resides among her powers inside her. X.A.N.A. had used the nightmares to materialize him from time to time without her noticing. She would start to befriend this Dark William, realizing that he's human and only partly evil by X.A.N.A. With human interaction, the Dark William would become her ally.

However, at some point Cassandra's little sister, Amani, would appear and try to assassinate William with a bow and an arrow under the orders of her parents who are trying to do anything to hurt anyone who's ruined their elder daughter. Cassandra is gone to them, but they are still trying to do anything to make anyone they can suffer for it. Amani would get noticed by Cassandra whom the nightmare powers let see that Amani aims at William's heart and then step between her friend and the deadly arrow, getting hit into the shoulder. Amani would then recognize her sister when the other Lyoko Warriors would cry her name and run away. Cassandra would chase her and get hit by a car and thus lose her, ending up into a hospital where she would clash with her parents, alerted by Amani. The fateful encounter would endanger her and William's lives as, despite of being armed with a sabre she's held onto for long, the parents grab them both and threaten to kill them. The situation would end well, though, as Riverain's PE teacher, mister Bouchard, would appear in the scene, having come to the hospital after hearing of the incident at Kadic on the news. The abusive parents would be arrested and Amani would be sent to a mental health hospital to recover from the heavy mental traumas she held, while Cassandra would stay at Kadic to fight against X.A.N.A. even though she could have returned to Riverain then. She would explain her choice to stay with her friends being there, even though she had wanted to return to the swordplay club. Later on, she would testify against her parents and gets them away from her life, while mister Bouchard, knowing the girl's potential as a fencer, would offer to act as her guardian even though she studies away from him as Cassandra has no close relatives. Cassandra would take this offer gladly, avoiding more legal problems due to no longer having her parents available.

More time would pass. The battle against X.A.N.A. continues in the Digital Sea where the Lyoko Warriors keep trying to find Franz Hopper and destroy X.A.N.A.'s replicas. It's a possibility that mister Bouchard would bring the swordplay club on a camp close to Kadic at some point, allowing Cassandra and William to meet their old school friends such as Mathieu, and practice their sword skills – although unknown to them all is that the two do it all the time on Lyoko, causing their prowess to be a cause of surprise to their fellows – especially William's new skill level would surprise their peer as he could beat Mathieu (who made the mistake of underestimating him) and hold his own against Cassandra, whose tricks he had learned. Of course, X.A.N.A. would not waste a chance to attack, and targets the camp, leading Cassandra and William to find out that mister Bouchard knows X.A.N.A. and that he helped Hopper with Project Carthage in the past and later the initial creation of Lyoko from afar. After hearing about what had happened to his old friend and his daughter and Franz's secret project, mister Bouchard would offer his help to the Lyoko Warriors and becomes a distant helper to Jeremy and they and Franz try to figure out a way to destroy X.A.N.A. Cassandra would stay in contact with the swordplay club and keeps practicing in her free time, having been disappointed in Jim's poor attempt of having a swordplay lesson at PE earlier – with the swords' tips getting protected by wooden bottle caps, it's not good to even try to get any tutoring even though Jim has claimed he was good at fencing in his youth. Cassandra believes none of that talk.

Time passes on again and finally X.A.N.A. gets destroyed. Franz would be materialized after William saves his life from the Mantas at the Celestial Dome during the time of X.A.N.A.s destruction (episode 94), and he reclaims the Hermitage, starting to build his life from scratch under the identity of Franz Stones, Aelita's father from Canada. Cassandra would bid farewell sadly to her nightmare powers and the Dark William as they disappear with X.A.N.A.

The school year would come to an end. Cassandra would announce that she transfers to Riverain now that the school year is over; with X.A.N.A. gone, nothing no longer keeps her there as William no longer loves her. Yumi has gotten closer to Ulrich but William has not given up, and Cassandra does not expect him to either. She also knows herself; she would only hurt William if she got together with him again. No, it was time to move on. She would leave to Riverain, restart at the swordplay club and later progresses to become a professional fencer, guided by mister Bouchard, all while staying in touch with her Lyoko Warriors friends.

The story would end with an epilogue years after the end of the battle against X.A.N.A. William would be in a happy relationship while Cassandra would have become a renowned swordswoman and stayed single. What William does not know is that the nightmares never truly disappeared with X.A.N.A., only became dormant when the link to the AI broke down. The powers Cassandra has were not made by X.A.N.A., only utilized by it. An encounter on a street between Cassandra and William (and his girlfriend?) would lead him to finding it out in some way; the most popular idea has been that a robber attacks Cassandra from behind and puts a knife on her throat. Calmly Cassandra would tell the robber that they are making a mistake as she is not alone; her bodyguard is there. After the warnings, a man would appear behind the robber and causes his attention to shift enough to let Cassandra get away and let her bodyguard take care of the robber. This would lead to William finding out about the companion Cassandra never told him about: The Dark William who surfaced after graduating from Riverain.

Cassandra would tell William about how she freaked out the instant she saw the Dark William in her apartment at a time she was sure she was not imagining things and how she ran straight to a psychologist, getting herself tested only to find out there was nothing wrong with her psychologically nor neurologically, causing her to seek therapy as the visions kept happening. She started to interact with the Dark William, who now calls himself Damien, and as time went on and Cassandra re-found her powers, she managed to make him visible to others, ending the therapy there; she was not ill. Damien is real and so are her powers, leading Cassandra to go and search for answers for them from religion, mythology, superstition, cults, you name it. Getting answers from farfetched to close but not believable, Cassandra ended her search and concentrated on improving her control over the powers and Damien's physical form.

William would be shocked, unable to understand why Cassandra never told him. Cassandra would explain that she did not want to worry him especially when she started to learn to live with it. William would not trust Damien, but he has no choice but accept his existence. There is no way he can be obliterated.

The two friends would part ways again, promising to keep in touch and meet again sometime and that's where the story ends.

This is the known part of this story I had ready in my mind and some notes. Now that I've told it, I will most likely never return to this. It's over and I doubt I'll never get the spark of inspiration to retake Cassandra's character and continue with it.

If there is someone out there who would like to write this story to its end on my behalf, please let me know and we'll discuss it. I'd be glad to give this to the hands of a writer who has more passion for this story than I do.

 **/Code Lyoko (c) Moonscoop, Cassandra Delorien, Riverain and the rest of its original characters (c) Me/**


	17. Bonus: Cassandra's Points of No Return

**/Author's note: FFM 2017, July 16th. Optional theme: Point of no return./**

Cassandra stared into the horizon. She knew that something was going on when a ball smoke was approaching her.

"What do you want now?" she asked when the smoke reached her and turned into a boy of her age she knew very well.

"I want you to surrender," the boy said.

"Me? Surrender?" Cassandra asked.

"Yes. You. Surrender," the boy said evenly. "This is a fight you can't win."

"Oh, but I can win, you idiot, and I can survive. I tell you, I don't know why you have taken William's form, but if he ever ends up here, I swear I won't let you get him. You'll never get him. That's a promise," Cassandra said with a voice stronger than her bravery. This was just a dream – more like a nightmare but a still just a dream – but that did not make her any less scared of the frightening, twisted image of the only person she had ever loved.

"Your confidence will be your doom, Cass," the boy threatened with a low voice.

"No, it won't," Cassandra said with a forced even voice. "And don't call me by that name. Taking William's looks doesn't grant you the right to use it."

The boy smiled an evil, malevolent smile.

"If I can't order you, you can't order me. You'd do well if you did what I said. Otherwise, you'll never see your beloved William again, I guarantee that," he said. He took a weird sword and slashed at Cassandra's eyes faster than the girl's eyes allowed her to see.

Cassandra woke up, panting. She could still see. The dream was over now. But there were more to come. And the threat, the danger to her love was not unreal, she felt it in her gut.

Cassandra stood up and unsheathed her sword. This nightmare was a sign of something coming her way.

She knew that this nightmare marked the next point of no return. She would never return to X.A.N.A., which meant that she would have to fight it soon. First the scanner under X.A.N.A.'s guidance, now this. Where was the next point? Where would she once again be unable to turn back?

Would it be when William would come there?

Months later, it was time to find out if that was truly the third point of no return for her on Lyoko.

 **/Code Lyoko (c) Moonscoop, Cassandra Delorien, Riverain and the rest of its original characters (c) Me/**


	18. Bonus: Cassandra Delorien's Realism

**/Author's note: This is a oneshot I wrote about Cassandra on a mother language course. We had to write something about realism, and this is what I did. I depicted the life Cassandra lived at home./**

Cassandra hissed in pain as she detached the bandage from her bruised arm. Every place hurt again. The traffic rumbled while going past the house but otherwise the messed-up room was silent. The air was stuffy and the taste of blood in the girl's mouth, let alone the dried blood which covered the nose and the ruptured lips, did not help at all.

Cassandra did not dare to move her knee in which the remnants of the ruptured abscess throbbed the sensation of pain on constant input to the girl's brains. If she had luck, nothing had been permanently broken in her, even though the hairline fracture in her rib worried her. It would be easy to break, easier than her already brittle bones.

And still no one noticed anything.

 **/Code Lyoko (c) Moonscoop, Cassandra Delorien, Riverain and the rest of its original characters (c) Me/**


	19. Bonus:Romantic Nature of Cassandra'sFear

**/Author's note: Just like Cassandra Delorien's Realism, this is a oneshot for a mother language course (the same one, in fact). We were supposed to write with romanticism, and this is what I did, depicting Cassandra's fear through nature. The full name did not fit, and it's:** ** _ **The Romantic Nature of Cassandra's Fear.**_ /**

The torrential rain lashes at my body, it's dark.

I can't see anything, to mud my feet have sunk.

I can't escape. I fear when the bare branches beat my body wounded like his sword.

The rain tries to push me over to my horror.

The trees are black like his darkness.

The howl of the wind is his mocking laughter.

Oh dear, I fear.

And I can't get away, as I sink into the mud.

Or has his black smoke stopped me,

Blackened the trees and the rain?

The cold devours, the water pours me to the black* horror of the trees.

The lightning flashes; it's his sword.

The rain of horror blackens him.

The lighting strikes through my fear.

The black smoke brings everything dark.

 **/Code Lyoko (c) Moonscoop, Cassandra Delorien, Riverain and the rest of its original characters (c) Me/**


End file.
